The Women
In an era when adult females routinely refer to each other as girls while flaunting their status, what use do we have for a remake of 1939’s The Women? Despite the careful updating from writer/director Diane English (Murphy Brown), there's something quaintly old-fashioned about this film, as if the free-willed daughters of ladies who lunch have put on their mothers' constricting wardrobe, but without the necessary foundation garments.
English keeps the cast all female and employs the original’s central storyline, wherein beloved society matron Mary Haines (Meg Ryan) discovers that her high-powered husband is having a fling with the sultry Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes), who works at a department store perfume counter. Mary’s tight circle of friends rally around her, with the queen bee of their well-heeled hive, the ferociously opinionated Sylvie Fowler (Annette Bening), taking charge.
The modernization of The Women means that Crystal is no longer the only working girl; with the exception of full-time baby-making machine Edie Cohen (Debra Messing), these women pursue careers the way their forbearers pursued men. Sylvie has just been elevated to editor-in-chief of an influential fashion magazine, one she hopes to recast as the thinking woman’s monthly. Mary dutifully designs clothes she would never wear for her errant father’s fashion house.
When it comes to squeezing these new women into the restrictive mindset of their grandmothers, English is less successful. She recasts her own feminist icon, Candice Bergen, as Mary’s too smart for the choices she’s made mother, who doles out cocktails with relationship advice that makes The Rules look progressive. Despite Jada Pinkett Smith’s forceful personality, her lesbian author feels more like a token, there to provide rude sexual comments in lieu of a man.
Like Sylvie, English wants to elevate the conversation about women’s lives using a mass-media form that has become all about the lowest common denominator. But she doesn’t know what to make of the pit bulls with lipstick who take for granted what women of her generation had to fight for and then bully their way to the top by playing to the worst aspects of our natures (like the ambitious editrix who lobbies for “the revenge issue”).
Her women may wear the Jungle Red nail polish of their predecessors, but English can’t bring herself to stage a bloody catfight. Without its salacious, satirical bite, The Women is a toothless talkfest with too little to say.
© 2008, Serena Donadoni. All rights reserved.
THE WOMEN (2008) | 2 out of 5 stars
Writer and Director: Diane English | Adapted from the 1936 play by Clare Boothe Luce, and the 1939 screenplay by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin | Cinematography: Anastas Michos | Music: Mark Isham | Production Design: Jane Musky | Costume Design: John Dunn | Editing: Tia Nolan | Producers: Victoria Pearman, Mick Jagger, Bill Johnson, and Diane English | Released by Picturehouse | Running time: 114 minutes | Rated PG-13
Cast: Meg Ryan (Mary Haines), Annette Bening (Sylvie Fowler), Candice Bergen (Catherine Frazier), India Ennenga (Molly Haines), Debra Messing (Edie Cohen), Jada Pinkett Smith (Alex Fisher), Eva Mendes (Crystal Allen), Bette Midler (Leah "The Countess" Miller), Carrie Fisher (Bailey Smith), Joanna Gleason (Barbara Delacorte), Cloris Leachman (Maggie), Tilly Scott Pedersen (Uta), Debi Mazar (Tanya), Jill Flint (Annie), Ana Gasteyer (Pat), Natasha Alam (Natasha), and Lynn Whitfield (Glenda Hill).