Diane English's 21st century update of the 1930s dramedy THE WOMEN never frees itself from its source material. In so doing the contemporary material seems at odds with the 1930s-style humor. For the most part the film moves along not working, then you get a scene that does work and you wish that the rest of the movie were like that. Then you get more of those scenes and the movie starts developing some weight. But then it tanks it all right at the end with an ending that reminds us of everything that hadn't been working before.
Mary Haines (Meg Ryan, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…) is married to Stephen Haines, a rich New York businessman. She works designing uninspiring clothes for her father's company. Her best friend Sylvia Fowler (Annette Bening, AMERICAN BEAUTY) hears from a nail technician that Stephen is having an affair with the Saks perfume counter girl Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes, HITCH). Sylvia doesn't want to break her friend's heart so she tells the secret to her perpetually pregnant friend Edie Cohen (Debra Messing, TV's WILL & GRACE). But soon enough Mary discovers her husband's affair from the same source and begins to question her entire life.
Like the original film, the production features an all female cast (this one does feature one male cameo at the end). The acting is all over the place. Ryan actually handles the dramatic elements better than the comedy where she lacks the sharp bite that is needed for the material to work. Bening fares better, but her characterization at the beginning is a bad SEX IN THE CITY rip off. Mendes is no Joan Crawford, whom played the same role in the original. But then again, Crawford had a more fleshed out character to play. Messing seems most apt for the quick-fire humor, unlike Jada Pinkett Smith (THE MATRIX RELOADED), whom seems completely out of her element as the token lesbian friend. Candice Bergen (TV's MURPHY BROWN) as Mary's mother and Cloris Leachman (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW) as Mary's maid Maggie have some nice bits, but the vet that steals the show is Bette Midler as agent Leah Miller. In two scenes, she brings the sass that the material so desperately needed.
The original was a catty, campy melodrama. English, whom is best known for creating MURPHY BROWN, doesn't seem to know how to balance the humor and heartfelt emotions. BROWN had such poignant bite, but this old tired material seems like it's missing its dentures at times. When she gets to the contemporary heart toward the end, the film starts clicking, but it abandons even attempts at humor and wit. I must give her compliments for taking some of the material one step past the obvious conclusion to make a nice additional point. One example is Mary's decision regarding her clothing career. I also liked how Sylvia had to fight to stay relevant in her dream job. But then in the final moments, English reminds us of all the misfired and clichéd attempts at humor from the beginning. Come on… are diaphragm jokes really a commentary on contemporary womanhood? When the "funny" ending hits, the pacing should take off like a screwball comedy, but it never does, leaving the audience underwhelmed, instead of exhilarated.
It's been well reported that English has spent over a decade trying to get this film made. An all-female cast scares shortsighted male studio execs. But with the success of the SEX IN THE CITY movie, I'm sure there will be a lot more movies geared toward the adult female audience coming. Women… and men… however, deserve better than this. To be fair, I was very close to give it a weak recommendation based on the second half, but the more I thought about it I couldn't forgive the parts that just bombed. The tone is all over the place and the smart parts are too scarce. In trying to avoid the female stereotypes of the 1930s, THE WOMEN often presents stereotypes of 2008.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
