Reviews: “The Women” by Cole Smithey

The Women

Piecemeal and earnest to a fault, this remake of George Cukor’s 1939 film relies so much on the elite world of humorless, filthy rich New York women that it excludes most of its would-be target fans. Male audience members will find themselves especially short shrifted by an all-female I’m-so-beautiful movie that doesn’t deign to ever show the masculine source of its narrative engine. Meg Ryan plays Hamptons’ wife/mother Mary Haynes who discovers her never-glimpsed Wall Street husband is having an affair with a Saks Fifth Avenue fragrance counter clerk named Crystal (played by Eva Mendes for all of her va va voom charm). Mary’s loyal, and not so loyal, girlfriends (Annette Bening, Jada Pinket Smith, and Debra Messing) make roulette wheel attempts to help Mary through a marital crisis that never seems genuine. A glorified cameo performance from Bette Midler momentarily kicks the movie into gear before her too swift departure.

(Picturehouse) Rated PG-13. 114 mins. (C-) (Two Stars)

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One thought on “Reviews: “The Women” by Cole Smithey

  1. Hey Mr D & All!

    I get the impression that this is going to be a movie that a lot of people are going to see for the people in cameo roles.

    A friend of mine last night said that the lead roles would have been better played by the people who had smaller roles with Bette playing one of the leads. In a way I’m inclined to agree and if the movie is a roaring success (and I hope it does do excellent things for the makers at the box office) it also would have been the movie that would throw Bette in front of the cameras again. But given the extent of her Vegas gig, making movies might be some thing Ms Midler is putting on the back burner for a while.

    Again, I hope it works well for everyone involved, but I think I’ll wait this one out for a DVD release.

    P.S. Does anyone know how I can get an online petition up and running?

    Big Hugz!

    Manny
    xxx

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