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For the first half of the film, it is Pepa (Carmen Maura) who seems out of control. A soap opera actress, she is obsessed with silver-haired smooth-talker Iv�n (Fernando Guill�n), who has dumped her for his ex-wife's feminist lawyer (Kiti Manver).
It turns out, however, that Pepa is not nearly as messed up as her model friend Candela (Mar�a Barranco), who has let terrorists stay at her apartment. And she's definitely less crazy than Iv�n's ex-wife (Julieta Serrano), who has decided to put a permanent end to his philadering ways.
One frequently misunderstood plot device is Pepa's spiked Gaspacho sauce. She concocted it not to kill herself, but to serve it to Iv�n. Not to kill him either, but to force him to stay at least until he sleeps it off. In Pepa's mind at least, the logic makes sense.
As the film is a comedy, exaggerated situations and preposterous coincidences are more acceptable than they would be in a drama. Pepa catches the same cab on three occasions, and the odds of repeatedly confronting Iv�n's son and new mistress are outlandish.
Antonio Banderas has a supporting role as Carlos, the estranged son of Iv�n. He's a chip off the old block, as far as womanizing is concerned. With his fiancee passed out on a lawn chair, he continually hits on Candela, who sticks to her character by putting up little resistance.
Banderas was known mostly to Spanish audiences at this time. He would not become a star in the U.S. until The Mambo Kings (1992). Still, he gets more screen time than any other male character.
The somewhat silly film received notice on both sides of the Atlantic. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film by both the British and American Academy Awards. It won in that category at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.