What Have I Done To Deserve This? Reviews

amazing

this will not be a large review, just a little message to say you have to rent this movie. If you love early Pedro, Woman on a verge of a nervous breakdown, Pepi, luci y bom y otras historias del monton, then you are going to love this. It has more to offer than those above, or matador, and it is genuinly funny which is something that a lot of times is very hard to translate. It deals with the sexy carmen and her disfuncial family..the hsuband who is wanted to write hitlers letters, a son who has a gift of copying signatures, another son who pimps himself off to friends fathers and finally the dentist, the grandma and the iguana, the mother who?s had enough and the prostitute neighbour...Pure genius

Camp, amoral and outrageous

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. There?s no director like Almodovar and this vomit stained satire on morality and Spanish family life is one of his best and funniest films.

The incomparable Carmen Maura plays a down-trodden housewife living with her obnoxious pig of a husband and disintegrating extended family in a Madrid tower block. The comedy is black, the wall-paper is just nasty and the prostitute who lives next door keeps on popping round for bondage gear.

I first saw this film several years ago and it?s a long standing favourite, well overdue on DVD. Rent this classic and watch it with your Mum.

Interesting film

I had little idea what to expect before watching this film. I'd seen a review in a magazine and it was one of the ones I'd added on a whim. I'm glad I did, it was quite intriguing. With the sort of jet black humour you expect from Almaldovar, this film was a clever one with great performances, particularly from Chuz Lampreve as the senile grandma.

It might not be to everyone's tastes (references to homosexual peadophilia spring to mind) but this was a challenging film. However, there are down points. The film seems illogical at places and you are left wondering why Gloria allowed the situation to degenerate over such a long period of time.

But these small moans aside, this film is one that is definitely worth a watch. Recommended.

Madrilenians

I have lived in Madrid in the very same style of housing depicted in this film, with the same unreliable lift although not with the same taste in 1970's wallpaper and can imagine the different types of people as in this film. As in other Almodovar movies this one has the same quirky characters who would be more at home in celebrity big brother household, however, they are appealing and keep you tied to the screen as you are desperate to find out what happens to them in this black comedy. The flat is cramped and clostraphobic as 3 generations of the same family live there, with the mother trying to survive on the little money coming into the household and the stingy although funny Grandmother longing to go back to her old village. Maybe this is not the funniest of Almodovar films but it is worth seeing.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Some funny things but overall poor

Definitely not the best of Almodovar

[Highly rated reviewer]

What have i done to deserve this

A film i very disapointment to watch

Humorous Indictment of Modern Inner-City Life

When we think of Madrid most of us think of the Museo del Prado and other fine museums and of the city's palaces and plazas. We do not think of the hideous massive high-rise cubic apartment blocks on the outskirts where Madrid's 'East Enders', so to speak, pass much of their lives in little concrete flats of tiny cubic rooms. In 'What have I done to deserve this?' Almodovar focuses on the occupants of one such flat (a taxi-driver, his wife, his mother, and their two sons) all of whom eke out a living on the taxi-driver's meagre earnings - except for one of the sons who has found himself an older man. They have long ago all been reduced to pragmatism. The woman next door has taken to prostitution. However, every facet of the sorry plight is delivered with sudden and unexpected humour. You know the tone is to be light from the moment the titles hit the screen at the beginning: Almodovar is saying that this way of life is so terribly pathetic that it could almost be taken for a cartoon, some ridiculous farcical imagining. Ultimately, then, this is a film to stir the social conscience, not to uplift or inspire, but the instruction is undeniably entertaining.

Just coz it's foreign doesn't mean it's good!

If this film had been in English, everyone would have thought it was terrible. I thought it was a recent film, but i was fooled by the release date - this was first done in 1984 and it shows - it's very 70s. This was a strange movie - I'm not familiar with this directors' movies but it doesn't make me want to see more. The characters were interesting and the acting was good. However, ultimately it didn't really tell a story and was very disjointed. The genre was confused and awkward, leaving one not feeling much at all for any of the characters or story. It would have been better to focus on less and explore emotions more deeply.

Fragmented film

Too many ideas, that do not seem to gel.

Didn't like the film.

What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Centres around the life of a cleaner who seems to live in a very gritty world. It was a bit eccentric. Really good acting all round as you really felt as though you had just walked into the middle of this familes life.