The Women (2008) Movie Review

Based off the 1939 film and off the play by Clare Boothe Luce, The Women has had a bumpy road of getting onto the silver screen. From being rumored to star Jane Fonda in the 70’s to Julia Roberts in the 90’s, the proposed remake has gone through many attached directors and stars, and now it is finally here with a all-star female cast and under the direction of former Murphy Brown guru Diane English. The film itself will appeal to its focused female audience, but it is overall nothing really to garner much praise about.

The film central character is Mary Haines (Meg Ryan), who is a very wealthy married mother of one daughter. Her social circle includes her high-profile magazine editor friend Sylvia Fowler (Annette Bening), her mother of five with another on the way hippie friend Edie Cohen (Debra Messing), and her late night lesbian friend Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett Smith). While Sylvia is on her way to Mary’s current social gathering at her home, she stops at Saks 5th Avenue to get a manicure and is told the recent gossip from around the store by Tanya (Debi Mazar). Rumor is that a perfume girl named Crystal (Eva Mendes) has begun an affair with a high-profile suitor named Steven Haines, who is Mary’s husband. Shocked and confused Sylvia with Edie and Alex, before all three tell Mary about the news. Heartbroken Mary looks for assistance from her sophisticated mother (Candice Bergen) and actually confronts the perfume girl Crystal before her husband. She eventually files for divorce and begins a journey of finding herself through other ups and downs with her friends.

English updates the 1939 classic film to fit modern day, but the film still is staged as a play. The script from English garners a few chuckles, but most of the film’s bright moments come from the character reactions of the actresses. Many have stated that English bashes men left and right throughout the film, but that is not should not be a 100% clear statement. Yes, there are moments where feminist clichés are prevalent throughout the film, but this is not a male bashing, it is more a film made for women ages 30 years old and up. There is also not one male actor or extra visible in the film, not even in the background, which is English’s way to showing an all girl world in a movie for women. The film itself does not offer anything very witty or clever about it, it is material that has been seen and recycled before. In fact the third act bogs down in so many clichés that the film becomes a mild bore.

Meg Ryan has been attached for years to this project, and she plays Mary with all streaks of emotion. Annette Bening delivers the best performance of the cast and she has a ball chewing the scenery as the driven Sylvia Fowler. Debra Messing is suitable for her role as the Edie, who is the mom of the group that keeps popping out kids until she gets a son. Jada Pinkett Smith was cast as female lead for lesbian and African American audiences, and she has an amusing reactive scene when her character first lays eyes on Eva Mendes’s Crystal. Mendes herself is beautiful and the youngest member of the cast, but for the most part that is all she does is show her beauty, with the lack of ego and fierceness that her character calls for.

The Women is a film that has a much focused audience and this may be enjoy for them. However, all intentions aside, the film is nothing anyone has not seen before and lacks overall charisma to make it work despite its talented female cast.