Canada.com
Top 10 estrogen-energized flicks
Chick flicks can make boffo box office
Stephanie Marcus
Canwest News Service
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Hollywood may finally be over its infatuation with bromances. Some of this summer’s biggest hits, including Sex and the City, Mamma Mia and The Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants 2, proved that women-powered films are just as capable of drawing crowds as testosterone-fuelled action flicks.
The latest girl-powered movie to hit theatres is The Women, starring seven high-profile actresses: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes and Candice Bergen. In the film, the friends find their loyalties tested after they discover one of their husbands is having an affair.
In honour of The Women, here are our picks for the top 10 estrogen-energized movies:
10) Divine Secrets of the
Ya Ya Sisterhood (2002)
Premise: New York playwright Siddlee Walker (Sandra Bullock) publicly discusses her unhappy childhood, which leads to a fight with her mother. She’s then kidnapped by her mother’s childhood friends, who try to explain to her the reasons for her difficult childhood.
Girl Power: 1 shattered glass ceiling out of 5. Sandra Bullock and Ashley Judd are fantastic actresses, but the film is more weepy than winsome.
9) Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Premise: Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts) is a forward-thinking UCLA grad who accepts a teaching position at Wellesley College, where her female students (Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Julia Stiles) are more concerned with nabbing engagement rings than degrees.
Girl Power: 2 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Even Roberts and half of young Hollywood couldn’t save this movie, but it was fun to see them all together.
8) Georgia Rule (2007)
Premise: Wild child Rachel (Lindsay Lohan) is sent to live with her grandmother (Jane Fonda) after her mother (Felicity Huffman) has enough of her hard-partying ways.
Girl Power: 2 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Between Lohan’s totally believable performance as a manipulative, lying floozy and the awesomeness of Fonda and Huffman, the talent factor almost makes up for the abysmal script.
7) Mermaids (1990)
Premise: A single mother (Cher) and her two daughters (Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci) struggle to adjust to life in a new town.
Girl Power: 2 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Cher was at the height of her fame when Mermaids came out, not to mention Ryder, who at that time was everyone’s favourite teen-angst queen rather than everyone’s favourite klepto.
6) Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
Premise: When four best friends (Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn) face their first summer apart, they find a pair of jeans that miraculously fits each of them and brings them closer together.
Girl Power: 3 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Despite the silly premise, the film catapulted its young cast into the spotlight.
5) Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion (1997)
Premise: Best friends Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michelle (Lisa Kudrow) realize that, 10 years after high school, their lives aren’t where they thought they’d be. The fashionable duo, who manage to make Paris Hilton look like a member of Mensa, develop a plan to trick their classmates into believing their lives are wonderful.
Girl Power: 3 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Oscar-winning Sorvino and the Emmy-winning Kudrow (not to mention the always hilarious Janeane Garofalo) made us wish we had friends like these in high school.
4) Now and Then (1995)
Premise: Four pals (Christina Ricci, Gabby Hoffman, Thora Birch and Ashleigh Ashton Moore) spend the summer of 1970 uncovering a mystery, and end up discovering secrets about each other.
Girl Power: 3 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Not only did this film introduce some of the most impressive young actresses of its time, it also featured Melanie Griffith, Rita Wilson, Demi Moore and Rosie O’Donnell.
3) The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Premise: Alex (Cher), Jane (Susan Sarandon) and Suki (Michelle Pfeiffer) are bored housewives who conjure up a man to satisfy all their desires, but he turns out to be more than they bargained for.
Girl Power: 4 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Only these ladies could outshine Jack Nicholson.
2) Thelma and Louise (1991)
Premise: Sick of their lacklustre lives, Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) take off on a road trip. Things take a turn for the worst when Louise kills a man who was threatening to rape Thelma.
Girl Power: 5 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Davis and Sarandon will forever be remembered as femme fugitives driving off that cliff.
1) The First Wives Club (1996)
Premise: Following the death of an old friend, aging, jilted ex-wives (Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton) re-connect and band together to seek revenge against their former husbands.
Girl Power: 5 shattered glass ceilings out of 5. Not only does the trio tug at our heartstrings, they also belt out a mean You Don’t Own Me.
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