Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Women - DVD Review

THE WOMEN (*1/2) - Starring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Candice Bergen, Bette Midler, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Ana Gasteyer and Joanna Gleason.
Directed by Diane English.

Never saw the 1939 original. Was amused by never showing a single male onscreen. I've seen more than one movie where we never see a woman onscreen, but at least those movies had reason to not show women. They didn't pertain to the story being told. If the ship never landed on that island in Master & Commander, we'd have never seen women in one of Russell Crowe's best movies.

My main problem with this movie is that if you're not going to show any men, tell stories that make sense to not have the men be there. If the central character's story is about how her husband is cheating on her, how can you not show him? We see her side of phone calls, and people repeating conversations they had with him, and, and... just hire an actor already. Show, don't tell.

Can you imagine a movie with all men where the lead is going through a divorce because he learned his wife's cheating on him, and he confronts the other man, and his son repeats conversations he had with his mother, and there are only men walking the streets of New York, and, and... that movie would likely suck too.

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