The Women (2008)

“You wanna see a bad facelift? Helen Danvers, 2 o’clock. She looks like she’s re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere ” – Catherine Frazier

Number of Times Seen – 1 (21 Nov 2021)

Brief Synopsis – A woman finds out that her husband is having an affair and must find a way to recreate herself with the help of her close knit group of friends and family.

My Take on it – Interesting idea that doesn’t work as well as one might hope.

The cast is amazing with Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Candice Bergen, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, Carrie Fisher and Debi Mazar.

The idea to make a film with no male characters at all is quite innovative and they manage to do it quite well here in the way they present things.

Despite having such a stellar cast, they fail to really develop any of these characters and in the end they all come across as stereotypes and simplistically superficial in all that they say or do.

The various story lines of each of the characters is fine but they don’t come across as being interesting enough as things move along.

I liked the multi-gereational aspect of the film’s story, but the message that things are so cyclical in every generation seemed a bit strange and doesn’t allow for the characters to feel unique enough because they are basically saying that all is predictable in the way people will act and react.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Tanya the manicurist (Debi Mazar) talks about meeting Madonna. Mazar and Madonna are long-time friends; Mazar appeared in four Madonna music videos: “True Blue” and “Papa Don’t Preach” (1986), “Deeper and Deeper” (1992) and “Music” (2000). (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)