The First Wives Club / Shirley Valentine (DVD)

...this gift set, consisting of the British Shirley Valentine and the Hollywood First Wives' Club. At the time, bewildered and hurt, this was a perfect combination. Having recently come out of a long-term relationship, I was feeling in need of something to annoint my hurt pride, so dusted the set off and started watching.

First Wives Club begins with the suicide of Cynthia, an old college friend of Brenda, Elise and Annie. The three ...
...together and fight back - the result is a series of comeuppances for the erring husbands.

Brenda, Elise and Annie are played by Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton. All play their roles with great aplomb and buckets of over-exaggeration. Brenda is a wise-cracking Jewish mother who helped set her husband on his feet financially, before he left her for the much younger Shelly. Bette Midler does comedy very well - there is something ... more

When my mum got divorced from my dad, someone bought her this gift set, consisting of the British Shirley Valentine and the Hollywood First Wives' Club. At the time, bewildered and hurt, this was a perfect combination. Having recently come out of a long-term relationship, I was feeling in need of something to annoint my hurt pride, so dusted the set off and started watching.

First Wives Club begins with the suicide of Cynthia, an old college friend of Brenda, Elise and Annie. The three friends get together because of Cynthia's death, which was the result of depression after a failed marriage, and gradually, it becomes clear that each of them is also coming out of a ruined relationship - all have husbands who left them for younger women and all are feeling unconfident and deflated. Then they decide to stick together and fight back - the result is a series of comeuppances for the erring husbands.

Brenda, Elise and Annie are played by Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton. All play their roles with great aplomb and buckets of over-exaggeration. Brenda is a wise-cracking Jewish mother who helped set her husband on his feet financially, before he left her for the much younger Shelly. Bette Midler does comedy very well - there is something about her face that makes her perfect for it. Unfortunately, her role in this film is that of a caricature, or so it seemed to me, and this took away from my enjoyment of her performance. Elise is a spoiled actress, used to getting her own way in everything that she does, so she is more than taken aback when her husband, who she helped to make his successful career, wants to divorce her. Goldie Hawn is the mistress of over-acting. There is much face-pulling, exaggerating movements and shouting in this film and she nearly drove me mad. Annie is the more sensible of the three friends, who has a no-strings relationship with her husband, who treats her as a bit on the side. Of the three actresses, I would say that Keaton is the strongest, but this is not a good role for her. She is annoying as the downtrodden Annie, and even at the end when they are dancing around having achieved what they wanted, I still wished she would just go away.

There are two other big names in this film - Sarah Jessica Parker plays Shelly, the lover of one of the husbands. She looks very young and innocent in the role, but it really doesn't give her the chance to show what she can do. More frighteningly, Maggie Smith plays an elderly woman who supports 'the first wives' club'. I am surprised that an actress of her talent would have even considered taking such a part.

I remember seeing this film ten years ago and I thought it was pretty good. At the age of 37, even having just split up with my partner and being anti-men, I just found the whole film irritating and shallow. I think the problem is that these mature women all act like silly teenagers, so although the film should be aimed at older women, it is actually aimed at the very young - only the young could be taken in by the premise that all the men are to blame taking their wives for granted and running off with younger women.

Shirley Valentine is a forty something woman, married to Joe, who is vastly discontented with her life. Somewhere on the path to becoming who she is now, she lost a part of herself - the part of her that has fun. Then she gets the chance to go on holiday to Greece. Dumped by her friend, she is forced to spend the holiday on her own, but finds that she loves everything about the holiday (except perhaps the other British tourists!). When she finds a Greek lover, she begins to wonder if she should even bother going back home. Has she found a new life for herself? And what about Joe back in England?

Perhaps because it is British and certainly because it is less silly, I enjoyed Shirley Valentine much more. The humour is gentle and much less 'out there', but this adds a classiness that First Wives' Club really didn't have. The film is told from the point of view of Shirley, who talks directly to the camera as if she is talking to herself - when she is not talking to the wall that is. Pauline Collins, who plays Shirley, is perfect in the role and although she is older than me in the film, I found much that I could identify with - particularly the whole 'smug married' syndrome and the presumption that if you are alone, you must be lonely. I remember this film making quite a splash when it came out in 1989, simply because it portrayed a woman who was contemplating throwing in the towel on her marriage and children. It now seems surprising that such a short time ago this should have been such a revelation, but I suppose that is a good thing - women are no longer expected to be housewives and look after their husbands and children if they don't want to.

My only real gripe with this film is that Shirley's Greek lover, Costas, is played by Tom Conti. Conti, a great actor, is of Italian and Irish extraction (according to imdb.com), yet he plays a Greek in the film. I am not sure why, when the movie is obviously filmed in Greece, they could not find someone who was really Greek. This may be an unimportant point for some, but I think it is slightly insulting to see someone play someone from another nationality.

There are some other big names in this film. Alison Steadman plays Shirley's friend, Jane; Joanna Lumley is an old schoolfriend of Shirley's; Julia Mackenzie is a neighbour; Sylvia Syms plays a headmistress and Bernard Hill is Shirley's husband, Joe. All are fairly small roles, but all do a great job and add something to the story.

It is obvious why these films have been put together to make a gift set - they are both about middle-aged women who decide that their lives need changing and do something about it. However, I think that Shirley Valentine is a much better film, both from the acting and direction point of view. Yes, it is slightly old-fashioned now, but I still really enjoyed it. First Wives' Club, on the other hand, is a pointless film that I resent having spent an hour or so watching. It will probably be enjoyed a lot more by younger women, but for someone of my age, it is shallow and frankly a waste of time. There are much better comedies out there than this.

The box set that I have is made up of two separate DVDs held together in a box decorated with pictures from both films. It is classified as a 15, although First Wives Club is actually only a PG - we see Pauline Collins' bare breasts in Shirley Valentine. The two films together have a running time of 202 minutes.

There is just one extra - and that is a theatrical trailer for The First Wives' Club. This is exactly what it sounds like and frainkly is nothing exciting.

So would I recommend this box set? Frankly no. If you want to watch a film that will make you feel better about yourself, then watch Shirley Valentine on its own, but don't bother with First Wives' Club - it is not worth the time or money.

The box set is currently available from 101CD.com for £9.79. Amazon and play.com don't currently have any in stock. 

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