BootLeg Betty Movie Reviews

The First Wives Club (1996)

Comedy starring Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton as three abandoned New York wives who begin plotting their revenge on their errant ex-husbands.

Stars: Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith, Dan Hedaya, Sarah Jessica Parker
Director: Hugh Wilson

TV Guide

Sisters are doing it for themselves. But what they're doing is obsessing about men, which greatly undermines this purported comedy of female empowerment. Yes, it's great that Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler -- all women of a certain age, though they've done their best to make sure no one's certain what it is -- get to carry a major motion picture, playing college chums reunited by the perfidy of men. But their characters are reactionary caricatures: A selfish sot nipped and tucked within an inch of her life; a pathetic, repressed ditz; and a frustrated frump. And it takes a while to feel OK about laughing after Stockard Channing, the fourth alumna, does a swan dive onto Park Avenue because her husband has left her for a lemon tart (Heather Locklear). Only Maggie Smith sparkles, as the distinguished and oh-so-politely venomous socialite who's unimpeachable proof that "Don't get mad -- get everything," is very fine advice. The line itself is given to Ivana Trump, whose celebrity cameo demonstrates that she could, if she so chose, be the Zsa Zsa Gabor of the '90s.

TOM GLIATTO, People Magazine

Midler, Hawn and Keaton play rich Manhattanites of a certain age who are seeking revenge on the husbands who dumped them for younger, dumber girlfriends. The awful thing about this movie is that its stars, three of the best comic actresses in Hollywood, are reduced to bimbos too.

Nothing happens in Wives, directed with coarse obviousness by Hugh Wilson (Police Academy), that cannot be anticipated from your memory of other women's comedies like 9 to 5. This formulaic slickness wouldn't matter if Midler, Hawn and Keaton had each been given a scrap of fresh material. But Keaton just shrieks, and Midler's eyes have a hungry, angry look. She doesn't seem to relish having to play the frump of the group. Hawn, playing an actress losing both her looks and career, comes off best. Her voice has deepened to a husky growl that makes her delivery not only funny but sexy.

Edward Guthmann Friday, March 21, 1997

In "The First Wives Club,'' a terrific comedy that comes out on video this week, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton play middle-aged Manhattanites who form an alliance when their husbands dump them foryounger, sexy-but-dumb trophy girlfriends. It's a glamorous revenge romp, a "9 to 5'' mixed with "Auntie Mame,'' and it gives each star the opportunity to do her best work in a long, long time. What's surprising isn't that each of them is so delightfully good but that they work together so well.

Directed by Hugh Wilson ("Police Academy'' and "Guarding Tess''), written by Robert Harling ("Steel Magnolias'') and based on a novel by Olivia Goldsmith, "The First Wives Club'' opens when the unbilled Stockard Channing, playing a college chum of the three stars, jumps off her Park Avenue terrace after losing her husband.

Reunited by tragedy, the three stars find one another at the funer al, and over a drunken lunch reveal their apprehensions about marriage, age and fading beauty.

"We're has-beens, discards,'' Midler tells her sisters-in-suffering. "We're hanging on by a thread.''

It doesn't take long for the first wives to ditch the self-pity and convert rage into action.

You can tell the stars had a ball making "The First Wives Club,'' and that's a big part of what makes it so enjoyable.

Leonard Klady, Variety

In 1969, Goldie Hawn received an Oscar for her supporting role in "Cactus Flower"; Diane Keaton, fresh from "Hair" on Broadway, made her film debut in "Lovers and Other Strangers"; and Bette Midler was receiving her first acclaim as a musical revue artist in New York City. Now the formidable trio portray grads of Middlebury College's class of '69 in the caustic comedy "The First Wives Club." With its combination of comic zingers and star turns, pic shapes up as one of the more commercial fall entries.

Pic's three main characters are reunited by the suicide of a fourth college friend. Though they've been separated for nearly three decades, the protagonists' lives since school have been strikingly similar. Each married well , raised a family and has recently divorced or separated. Their spouses all flew the coop for younger women and, naturally, the women are mad as hell. Their brand of justice provides for a biting social comedy on the order of "The War of the Roses" and "9 to 5."

Elise (Hawn) is an Oscar-winning actress whose age is working against her getting the kind of roles that made her famous. Bill (Victor Garber), the husband whose producing career she nurtured, wants Elise to pay him alimony to put his very young girlfriend (Elizabeth Berkley) into his new movies.

Brenda (Midler) set her husband, Morty (Dan Hedaya), up in a chain of retail electronics stores. Shelly (Sarah Jessica Parker), his new squeeze, is a cashier-turned-social climber. Annie (Keaton) also sacrificed to get her soon-to-be ex, Aaron (Stephen Collins), established in the ad agency biz. He pushed her out of the boardroom and the bedroom and took up with their New Age analyst (Marcia Gay Harden).

The sisters in misery decide to band together and give the men a taste of their own medicine. As their plans evolve, the objectives become grander and more global in scope. To effect their ex-husbands' comeuppance they become urban commandos employing such societal weapons as the IRS, community property laws and arcane legal precedents. To make sure everything is on the up and up, they resort to extortion, bribery and coercion, commit breaking and entering and bear false witness.

The familiar setup sparkles a little brighter here thanks to the ensemble and their deft delivery of the bitchy dialogue in Robert Harling's adaptation of the Olivia Goldsmith novel. To mangle a famous quote, "revenge is a dish best served up funny" in the movies. Helping to achieve that, in addition to the accomplished leads, are such skillful laugh-getters as Maggie Smith, Philip Bosco, Eileen Heckart, Bronson Pinchot and, proving that brevity is the soul of a cameo gag, Rob Reiner.

The sense of anarchy recalls the zaniness of the Marx Brothers. But the filmmakers relent with a much too tidy, wholesome conclusion that flies in the face of all that preceded it. Still, getting there is almost all the fun.

Midler, Hawn and Keaton are a refreshingly cohesive comedy combo with that indefinable thing known as screen chemistry. It's particularly satisfying to see Hawn making sport of her eternally youthful persona and Midler giving full vent to her outsize personality. Keaton subtly keeps her co-stars from spinning into the ether. Also memorable in a cast of scene-stealers are Smith as a Manhattan social lioness, Parker as an insatiable opportunist and Garber effecting a supreme smugness that's a wonder to watch slowly eroding.

Director Hugh Wilson wisely gets out of the way of his performers, providing a simple glossy look enhanced by cameraman Donald Thorin, designer Peter Larkin and the costumes of Theoni V. Aldredge.

He and editor John Bloom understand that if one is to play the material big and broad, the story rhythm has to be attuned to the laughter emanating from the back row.

It's easy to pick apart "The First Wives Club" in a number of prime areas. For a female-sensitive saga, it has few distaff key creative personnel behind the camera.

Story's male characters take their fair share of hard, humorous scrutiny, but it's the women who get the worst of it every wrinkle and pound receives special attention.

One can also quibble that the picture falls a little too hard into the category of "rich people's problems."

At its core, the film is a celebration of its star trio as consummate performers. In that respect, "First Wives Club" is a highly enjoyable movie romp.

For the screen adaptation of Olivia Goldsmith's best-selling novel, the makers of "The First Wives Club" assembled a comedy dream team.

As three scorned women who join forces to get revenge on their boorish exes, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton give their personal best as they effortlessly volley screenwriter Robert Harling's exquisitely pithy barbs with the form and finesse of Olympic athletes.

Even when the film itself, a buoyant combination of "Waiting to Exhale" and "Nine to Five," fails to sustain the promising comic zip of its first half-hour, the potent combination of the three seasoned leads creates a lasting diversion -- one which should handily put "The First Wives Club" in the first-place club at the boxoffice.

Reunited after the suicide of college chum Cynthia Swann Griffin (Stockard Channing), Brenda Morelli Cushman (Midler), Elise Elliot Atchison (Hawn) and Annie MacDuggan Paradise (Keaton) discover they have a lot more in common than graduation memories.

It turns out housewives Brenda and Annie and withering starlet Elise have all been unceremoniously dumped by their ungrateful husbands -- after helping them build their successful businesses -- in favor of something younger and cuter.

Determined they're not going to spend the rest of their lives being bitter and vengeful (at least not bitter), they form the First Wives Club, which is designed to bring their selfish exes to financial ruin while boosting their sense of self-worth.

Suggesting a sassier, broader variation on his "Steel Magnolias," Harling's dialogue is a wonderful gift for the trio of actresses who have had to wait a long time for something comically substantial. Knowing a good thing when they see it, Hawn, Midler and Keaton, playing Ms. Lush, Ms. Thrush and Ms. Blush, respectively, make the most of their best roles in years.

While they could have handily carried the whole picture themselves, the hefty supporting cast, including old pros Maggie Smith as a glib society matron and Eileen Heckart as Keaton's controlling mother, and fresh-faced Jennifer Dundas as her matter-of-factly lesbian daughter, are equally adept.

As the vexed exes, Dan Hedaya, Victor Garber and Stephen Collins do what they can with their buffoonish characters, but it's clear Harling has given his best stuff to the women.

Handling the directing chores with a zesty ease, Hugh Wilson for the most part keeps the pace light and percolating.

Box Office Online

A new take on "Nine to Five" with Bette Midler in Lily Tomlin's role, Diane Keaton in Jane Fonda's and Goldie Hawn as a vain, alcoholic Dolly Parton, "The First Wives Club" hits the target with its intended audience demo--i.e., women--with its themes of sisterhood and sweet revenge against men (which recently worked so well for "Waiting to Exhale"). In this buoyant comedy, based on the best-selling novel by Olivia Goldsmith, three former college pals who've lost touch with each other reunite after 25 years. After the funeral of the leader (Stockard Channing) of what originally was a foursome--the woman committed suicide when her husband left her for a younger woman--the remaining members of the once-inseparable quartet begin catching up. They discover they've all become victims of their selfish husbands, who have dumped them for shallow but beautiful nymphettes. The women unite in their common cause: Destroy the husbands!

While dishing it out to their detestable ex-mates, the women also experience personal breakthroughs and revelations, and they begin to overcome their dysfunctions and insecurities. The film's tone is kept light and funny, never lingering on the tragic moments long enough to bring the audience down, yet still driving home an important message about emotional fragility, the cruel consequences of insensitivity, and the vital need to be there for one another. There are lots of laughs here and many fun moments of vindication well-relished by Midler, Hawn and Keaton, although the story and relationships are fairly formulaic. You can definitely see the bonding-over-a-food-orgy scene and the revenge montage set to the tune of "Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves" coming around Fifth Avenue.-Christine James

In ``The First Wives Club,'' a terrific comedy that opens today at Bay Area theaters, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton play middle-aged Manhattanites who form an alliance when their husbands dump them for younger, sexy-but-dumb trophy girlfriends.

It's a glamorous revenge romp, a ``9 to 5'' mixed with ``Auntie Mame,'' and it gives each star the opportunity to do her best work in a long, long time. What's surprising isn't that each of them is so delightfully good -- we've seen Midler's ``Ruthless People,'' Hawn's ``Private Benjamin,'' Keaton's ``Annie Hall'' for feats of inspired foolishness -- but that they work together so well.

Directed by Hugh Wilson (``Police Academy'' and ``Guarding Tess''), written by Robert Harling (``Steel Magnolias'') and based on a novel by Olivia Goldsmith, ``The First Wives Club'' opens when the unbilled Stockard Channing, playing a college chum of the three stars, jumps off her Park Avenue terrace after losing her husband.

Reunited by tragedy, Brenda Morelli Cushman (Midler), Elise Elliot Atchinson (Hawn) and Annie MacDuggan Paradise (Keaton) find one another at the funeral, and over a drunken lunch reveal their apprehensions about marriage, age and fading beauty.

Cast true to type, Midler's a Jewish harpie and heiress who sets up her tacky spouse (Dan Hedaya) in the electronics business, only to lose him to shapely airhead Sarah Jessica Parker.

Hawn's a fading movie queen, so full of collagen and surgical amendments that Midler dubs her ``a Beverly Hills science project.''

Her husband (Victor Garber) uses her bucks to flourish as a producer, ditches her for a spandex- and-silicone nightmare (Elizabeth Berkley of ``Showgirls'') and then has the gall to demand alimony.

Keaton, an overapologetic doormat, weathers the ultimate disgrace when her husband (Stephen Collins) takes up with her therapist (Marcia Gay Harden), then gets a shock when her daughter (Jennifer Dundas) announces that she's a lesbian.

``We're has-beens, discards,'' Midler tells her sisters-in-suffering. ``We're hanging on by a thread.''

It doesn't take long for the first wives to ditch the self-pity and convert rage into action. Hawn arranges for her husband's Lamborghini to be impounded, Midler manipulates her hubby's girlfriend into spending all his money and Keaton finally learns the benefits of getting mad.

Somehow the elements that each star brought to her own cinematic vehicles are deliciously fused: Midler's mugging, manic energy and genius with a joke line, Hawn's exquisite timing and air of fey enchantment, Keaton's exasperated, self-deprecating goofiness. You can tell the stars had a ball making ``The First Wives Club,'' and that's a big part of what makes it so enjoyable. The cast also includes Maggie Smith as a witchy social queen, Bronson Pinchot as Midler's presumably gay friend, Philip Bosco as her uncle, Eileen Heckart as Keaton's mother and Ivana Trump, Kathie Lee Gifford, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and Gloria Steinem as themselves.

``The First Wives Club'' was shot in New York last winter, and the setting looks like the Manhattan of ``My Man Godfrey'' and other old Hollywood movies that made the city seem so sophisticated and inviting. Peter Larkin (``Tootsie,'' ``Get Shorty'') designed the production, and Theoni V. Aldredge, whose credits range from ``Addams Family Values'' to ``La Cage aux Folles,'' created the costumes.

They're part of what makes ``The First Wives Club'' work, but ultimately it's Midler, Hawn and Keaton, probably the best comic film actresses alive, who make it sing.

Don't get even, darlinks,' advises Ivana Trump. 'Just get everything.' And Midler, Hawn and Keaton, deserted by their husbands for younger women, prove there's life in the old bitches yet: revenge begins at 45. Thus the down-trodden Diane, vodka-sodden Goldie and blinkered Bette get tough, get sober and get even to get their own back on their errant swains. Even though there's a socko supporting cast packed with stars, these middle-aged Mata Haris are almost inevitably the whole deal, with Keaton in particular proving herself an outstanding physical clown, especially in moments of high panic when the trio gets trapped trying to get the goods on one of the guys. It's fun nearly all the way and, if it could have been even funnier, that's a small quibble. Stay tuned for the girls' song at the end: it's pretty sensational.

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