The Women (Picturehouse)
Dont Blame It On the Men
The Women is a remake of the 1939 George Cukor film of the same name. The earlier version had bite, sass and fire. This current version has none of that. If you expected the claws to be out, rest assured they remain sheathed throughout the length of the film. Meg Ryan and her co-conspirators are so bland they make super sweet June Allyson and her cast mates in the 1973 remake, which was titled The Opposite Sex, seem like real meanies in comparison.
Ryan plays Mary Haines, a married woman with a young daughter. Her best friends are Sylvia Fowler (Annette Bening), Edie Cohen (Debra Messing) and Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett Smith). One day Sylvia is in Saks Fifth Avenue getting her nails done. The manicurist (Debi Mazar) is blabbing away about her best friend Crystal (Eva Mendes) who is having an affair with a man named Steven Haines.
Mary eventually learns of the affair and is heartbroken. Sylvia, Edie and Alex try to console her. They even confront Crystal but to no avail. Crystal is the spritzer girl at Saks and just laughs at their complaints.
Mary at first takes advice from her mother (Candice Bergen) but soon learns she has to figure this all out on her own. Her housekeeper (Cloris Leachman) tries to help but she doesnt know what to say. Nobody does. It is up to Mary to solve her own problems.
Ryan is okay as Mary. This is the first Meg Ryan like role she has played in ages. With her curly mass of hair and her hesitant way of talking she makes Mary nave and innocent. If the role had been written better, Ryan could have played it better.
Bening is also okay as Sylvia. In the original this character was the most comic. In this version she is the most bland. Sylvia is an important character in the film but for all the wrong reasons.
As Crystal, Mendes has minimal screen time. She is one sexy woman but you wouldnt know it from this film. Her first scene is her best and after that it is all downhill. By the end of the movie she has all but been forgotten.
There are cameos galore in the movie. Stars such as Bette Midler and Carrie Fisher appear in a scene and then are gone. There is no cohesiveness to the story and people popping in and out do not help.
There are no men in the movie. In the street scenes it is all women. In the store scenes it is all women. In the party scenes it is all women. Watching to see if a man might pop up is one of the fun things to do in the movie.
The film is rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual innuendoes.
With a story of infidelity and the other woman you expect there to be some witchiness, some cattiness, some brittle barbs; but there is none of this. Instead this is a movie of blands and blahs. It doesnt entertain, it doesnt amuse, and it surely does not cause laughter. The women of The Women are mostly poorly lighted and look bad in addition to acting blandly.
I scored The Women a sexist 4 out of 10.
