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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown poster

Movies that feel likeWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

After being dumped by her lover, Pepa finds her life and the lives of those around her spiraling out of control in a deliciously chaotic series of events.

If you loved Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the closest films we have are Talk to Her (2002), A Man Called Otto (2022) and Girl, Interrupted (1999). All three share Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown's contemplative and warm feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Places in the Heart (1984).

🍅 94% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Pedro Almodóvarwittyplayfulcontemplativewarmmelancholy
6 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Hulu · Angel Studios

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If Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown hit the spot, these will too

Talk to Her poster
Talk to Her
2002 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 91%★ 7.9drama · romance

The same hand behind both of them: Pedro Almodóvar

The difference: Goes its own way on the wit

Two men share an odd friendship while they care for two women who are both in deep comas.

A Man Called Otto poster
A Man Called Otto
2022 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 70%★ 7.5comedy · dramaHulu

The same two preoccupations: friendship, and suicide attempt

The difference: Made in the 2020s, in a different era of the craft

When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.

Girl, Interrupted poster
Girl, Interrupted
1999 · dir. James Mangold
🍅 53%★ 7.3drama

Two things both keep coming back to: female friendship and a woman at the center

The difference: The critics' underdog of the pair

Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, Susanna Kaysen's prescribed "short rest" from a psychiatrist she had met only once becomes a strange, unknown journey into Alice's Wonderland, where she struggles with the thin line between normal and crazy. Susanna soon realizes how hard it is to get out once she has been committed, and she ultimately has to choose between the world of people who belong inside or the difficult world of reality outside.

Julieta poster
Julieta
2016 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 84%★ 7.1drama · romance

Pedro Almodóvar directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Lighter on wit

The film spans 30 years in Julieta’s life from a nostalgic 1985 where everything seems hopeful, to 2015 where her life appears to be beyond repair and she is on the verge of madness.

Sunshine Cleaning poster
Sunshine Cleaning
2009 · dir. Christine Jeffs
🍅 74%★ 6.8comedy · dramaMax

Witty where it counts, playful underneath

A single mother and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this off-beat dramatic comedy. In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school the mom starts an unusual business – a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service.

Toni Erdmann poster
Toni Erdmann
2016 · dir. Maren Ade
🍅 93%★ 7.3comedy · drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then melancholy

Convinced that his daughter has forgotten how to laugh, a father shows up unannounced while she's living abroad and bombards her with outrageous jokes.

Good Bye, Lenin! poster
Good Bye, Lenin!
2003 · dir. Wolfgang Becker
🍅 91%★ 7.7comedy · drama

Witty comedy in both cases

Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.

August: Osage County poster
August: Osage County
2013 · dir. John Wells
🍅 67%★ 7.2comedy · dramaPrime Video

Drama built on play, twice over

An intense look at the lives of the strong-willed daughters of the Weston family, whose paths have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional mother who raised them.

Patch Adams poster
Patch Adams
1998 · dir. Tom Shadyac
🍅 22%★ 6.9comedy · drama

Contemplative comedy, and it commits to that

The true story of Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams, who in the 1970s found that humor is the best medicine, and was willing to do just anything to make his patients laugh—even if it meant risking his own career.

All About My Mother poster
All About My Mother
1999 · dir. Pedro Almodóvar
🍅 98%★ 7.8comedy · drama

Drama with a pulse of wit, in both cases

Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.

Places in the Heart poster
Places in the Heart
1984 · dir. Robert Benton
🍅 90%★ 7.4drama

Both lean on melancholy more than on drama

In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank - not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret; a blind boarder, Mr. Will; and a would-be thief, Moze, who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.

Red Dog poster
Red Dog
2011 · dir. Kriv Stenders
🍅 84%★ 7.3drama · comedy · familyPrime Video

Warm comedy, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans further into family

The legendary true story of the Red Dog who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master.

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The best-reviewed films that share Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’s defining feeling.