The Women is a 2008 comedy film and an updated version on the 1939 classic. The critics hated this film and said that it had nothing on the original. The film did relatively well at the box office, grossing an estimated $48,688,801 on a budget of $16,000,000.
The Women is directed by Diane ... Read review
What happens when you combine a brilliant, all-female, all-star cast, headed by Meg Ryan ... more
and Annette Bening; celebrated comedy writer/director/producer Diane English (Murphy Brown); and a classic story about a circle of New York friends? The answer is THE WOMEN, a smart, sparkling comedy about contemporary womanhood and the power of female relationships. Based on George Cukor's 1939 film and Clare Boothe Luce#'s 1936 stage play, THE WOMEN whisks us into a busy pocket of Manhanttan society, where the publishing, fashion and finance industries play. At the centre of the tale is Ryan's character, Mary Haines, a thoroughly modern woman suddenly confronted with an age-old dilemma; a cheating husband. The ladies in her life swiftly rally to Mary's side, led by her best friend, Sylvie Fowler, a dynamic magazine editor played by Bening. But when Sylvie betrays Mary in a Faustian bargain, the entire group is shaken to the core - and two women face the most painful breakup of all - their friendship.
A landmark in feminist literature THE WOMEN'S ROOM is a biting social commentary of a ... more
world gone silently haywire. Written in the 1970s but with profound resonance today this is a modern allegory that offers piercing insight into the social norms accepted blindly and revered so completely. 'Today's desperate housewives" eat your heart out! This is the original and still the best a page-turner that makes you think. Essential reading' Kate Mosse 'They said this book would change lives - and it certainly changed mine' Jenni Murray 'Reading THE WOMEN'S ROOM was an intense and wonderful experience. It is in my DNA' Kirsty Wark 'THE WOMEN'S ROOM took the lid off a seething mass of women's frustrations resentments and furies; it was about the need to change things from top to bottom; it was a declaration of independence' OBSERVER
Postage & Packaging:£0.00 Availability:3-5 working days
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Tony Dow - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: John Challis, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tessa Peake-Jones, Gwyneth Strong
Advantages: I've tried & tried but can't think of a single thing Disadvantages: The acting, the script, the message... shall I go on?
The Women is a 2008 comedy film and an updated version on the 1939 classic. The critics hated this film and said that it had nothing on the original. The film did relatively well at the box office, grossing an estimated $48,688,801 on a budget of $16,000,000.
The Women is directed by Diane English who is more famous for her work on sitcoms including Murphy Brown.
Chick flick queen Meg Ryan plays the lead in this, you’d ... ...Seattle and City Of Angels. The film also stars: Annette Bening (Running With Scissors), Eva Mendes (Hitch), Debra Messing (Will & Grace) and Jada Pinkett Smith (Collateral).
When Mary Haines discovers that her husband is having an affair her friends all want to help her get through her difficult time. Her Mother also steps in to give her some perspective on a situation that she is all too familiar with. When her friends find out before ... more
The Women is a 2008 comedy film and an updated version on the 1939 classic. The critics hated this film and said that it had nothing on the original. The film did relatively well at the box office, grossing an estimated $48,688,801 on a budget of $16,000,000.
The Women is directed by Diane English who is more famous for her work on sitcoms including Murphy Brown.
Chick flick queen Meg Ryan plays the lead in this, you’d think with someone like her this film would be a guaranteed success. Meg Ryan has previously starred in: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless In Seattle and City Of Angels. The film also stars: Annette Bening (Running With Scissors), Eva Mendes (Hitch), Debra Messing (Will & Grace) and Jada Pinkett Smith (Collateral).
When Mary Haines discovers that her husband is having an affair her friends all want to help her get through her difficult time. Her Mother also steps in to give her some perspective on a situation that she is all too familiar with. When her friends find out before her from their gossip queen manicurist they deliberate whether to tell Mary or not however soon enough Mary finds out the news from the same person.
Mary has to decide what to do about her husband’s betrayal but that’s not the only problem; her friend’s know who his mistress is and they warn her off to no avail. It’s up to Mary to sort her life out and decide what to do about her failing marriage.
When I saw this advertised on TV I had planned to go and see it at the cinema with some friends but unfortunately we never got round to it. Therefore when it was released on DVD I decided that it was a must-see and had hoped that it would mirror something like the brilliant Sex & The City movie… how wrong could I be?
As I mentioned earlier this film is an updated version of the 1939 film, I think this film should have been left in the vault as updating it was a huge mistake. To start with there’s just nothing likeable about it whatsoever. When it first began I got an inkling that I wasn’t going to enjoy it but I thought to myself that this film has a stellar cast and maybe they’ll make the film enjoyable… wrong again!
The acting was pretty diabolical and that’s me being lenient, there’s not one character that I liked in the entire film. I’ve only seen one or two Meg Ryan films in my life so I can’t really comment on whether her acting has got better or worse over her numerous years in the business but what I do know is that the character of Mary that she portrayed was simply annoying. She’d been married to her husband for 13 years and when she found her that he was having an affair there was a moment of emotion but for the rest of the film it just seemed like she was getting on with her life. Yes this may be a good way to cope with it in the real world but this is a film and we want to see some real emotion and character development. Her friends are just as bad; Annette Bening is someone that I’ve heard of but have never seen in a film and going solely by her performance in The Women is not an actress that I would like to see again however to be fair, out of all of Mary’s friends Syvie’s character was probably the best although that is by no means a compliment. Edie, played by Debra Messing was clumsy and wooden and was a character that I had no empathy for whatsoever, her character didn’t really seem to have a point and you could almost fathom that she had just turned up on set one day with no script and decided that she wanted to be in the movie! The part of Catherine played by Candice Bergen is somewhat likeable, the way she delivers humour with her usual dead pan expression just like she does in Sex & The City as Carrie’s editor is mildly funny however the way she advises Mary about what to do concerning his infidelity is something you’d expect to hear if this were a movie made in the 50’s… granted this is a 1939 movie but they didn’t call it an updated version for nothing… or did they? Finally the character of Alex, played by Jada Pinkett Smith was played for laughs, unsuccessfully I must add. If this movie was remotely funny then she would be the character that most of the laughs came from, her character as the butch, feminist lesbian who has strong views is something that stands out from the rest of the characters but is still not very likeable. Overall I would say that from such a brilliant cast the acting was a huge let-down.
The script was awful, something who I didn’t mention in the former paragraph was Eva Mendes’ character of Crystal, the woman having the affair with Mary’s husband. She suffers the worst in this movie out of everybody in it, it seems as though she was only brought in because of her looks. Unfortunately this isn’t a silent movie and looks alone wont get you by in a film like this, you have to be likeable whether you’re playing the mistress or not. Some of the lines that her character came out with were absolutely outrageous and I can’t see anyone ever saying that in real life. I really liked her in Hitch so I was disappointed with how bad her acting was in this, she was so over exaggerated with everything she did and this became extremely irritating.
I thought that the idea not to have a single male cast member was actually quite clever, I’m by no means a feminist but I think that a movie about women empowering themselves can be very uplifting. This film however, manages to contradict itself with this, by having no men I was expecting the women to be feisty and not care about what men think, they however seem to worship the men and can’t do anything without their permission. Especially the character of Catherine, Mary’s Mother who decides that when her husband had an affair she would completely ignore it, I’m not saying that this is a wrong approach but seeing as this film had such an uplifting, feminist vibe about it I was expecting the characters to be a lot stronger and opinionated. Unfortunately this was just another in a long line of letdowns.
The film seems to go absolutely nowhere, the whole story is revolved around Mary’s predicament yet for her it’s not so much of a predicament and she actually seems more concerned about her career than anything else. With a plot this weak to begin with you’d think that the script writers would have done everything in their power to make this film a lot more enjoyable that the plotline would suggest but yet again this film manages to disappoint.
The humour is noticeably absent for a film that is labelled a comedy. I think this film may have worked a little better if they got rid of the ‘comedy’ moments and made this into a drama, of course it would then appeal to a different audience but I think that with a little more raw emotion thrown in this film could have worked relatively well as a run of the mill drama film.
When I first decided to write about this film I had 2 stars in mind however after finding so many disappointing aspects of it to write about I’ve decided to downgrade it to one star. I think that no matter how much I rant about how much I disliked this film I still think that if you’ve got your heart set on seeing it then nothing I say is going to change your mind. I do however think that you should watch it expecting it to be a total train crash simply so you wont be too disappointed when you realise how mind numbing The Women actually is. If you are planning on seeing it then I would suggest not to buy it on DVD and rent it instead.
Overall I found this film to be a complete waste of my time and I was massively letdown as I had expecting a Sex & The City style film and instead I got a film that could quite easily rival the worst films of 2008. Ok now my rants over I’d just like to say that although I disliked this film immensely I’m actually quite glad that I saw it as now I know the benchmark for awful rom-coms if I ever begin to see anything similar I can turn it off straight away with no hesitating about thinking it may get better simply based on the cast! Therefore no matter how awful this film is it could save me hours of my life… how’s that for turning a negative into a positive eh?
The DVD is currently available from play.com for £7.99, it hasn’t been out too long so the price is understandable. I would however suggest that if you really feel the need to see it then rent it. It is although currently showing on Sky Box Office for around £3.99 which is about the same price as renting it.
Advantages: Some Good Performances Disadvantages: Pretty Much Everything Else
Mary has the perfect life; an intelligent daughter, a rich husband, a gorgeous house, great friends and a rich, compassionate husband. But when her best friend Sylvie, a successful but insecure magazine editor, finds out that Mary's husband is having an affair with a gorgeous perfume sampler at Saks Fifth Avenue she feels the need to Mary. So starts Mary of a journey of self discovery that she never imagined... The Women should have been a warm, ... ...defining your life away from the expectations of others, but it really isn't. The main characters are too shallow to be interesting, the writing too scatterbrained to hold the audiences attention and the pacing too sluggish to really engage the audience. It does follow some interesting and potentially moving themes, although most critics don't seem to agree, and does have some fleeting moments of poignancy, but it can never outrun the story's inherent ...
JayHall1991 14.06.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Women
Advantages: A reasonable turn from Annette Bening. Disadvantages: Generic performances, pedestrian direction, flaccid writing.
...with a spritzer girl from the perfume counter at Saks. Mary and Sylvie's relationship is tested to breaking point and their friends Edie (a one-woman baby factory) and Alex (a gay author) all begin to question their own issues too.
This is writer-director Diane English's directorial debut and her inexperience shows. The film is based on a George Cukor movie from the 1930s that starred Joan Crawford, but there isn't anywhere near enough star power ... ...the light touch required to make this a lighter-than-air comedy-drama. So the film grinds through the gear shifts from laughter to tears. All attempts at conveying feelings are ham-fisted, so you don't actually care about any of the players. Sadly this makes the movie largely ineffectual. It doesn't help that it is set in the kind of privileged world that appears to have been ripped from the pages of an aspirational magazine. All the women are independently ...
afy9mab 17.11.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Women
...went to see Sex and the City last summer for my birthday, an advert came on for a film that would be released later that year called The Women. I really liked the look of it, from that advert, so decided that when it came out, I would watch it. Finally, my library had got a copy of it on DVD so I eagerly checked it out last week to watch it and finally got around to doing so last week. I was really hoping it would good, but my goodness, what a colossal ... ...girlfriend wonder whether to hold the information back but it turns out Mary knows anyway. So Mary has to decide whether to stay in her marriage, or get out and make a life for herself. Her friends have some issues to deal with as well, so can The Women manage to pull through with the help of each other? This film is based on the 1939 film of the same name, and an adaptation of the 1936 play written by Clare Booth Luce. As in the earlier film, there ...
mummy2harry 04.05.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Women
I was in the mood for a real girly film the other day and decided to pick one with an obvious title 'The Women'. I had heard about it when it was released in the cinema, but had never actually made the trip to go and see it after hearing mixed reviews about it. I had nothing better to do and felt like a relaxing film so I decided to take a risk and watch this one. It has quite a good well known cast but sometimes that doesn't mean a film will be ... ...life. We focus mainly on the character Mary Haines, who is married to a wealthy man and doesn't work. Her best friend who we again focus a lot on is Sylvie Fowler (Annette Bening) who is a big magazine editor. One day when Sylvie is in Saks getting her nails done by one of the beauticians with a big mouth she finds out something shocking. The nail woman is telling all the inside gossip about her colleagues, in particular Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes) ...
ms19 26.11.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Women
Advantages: Good idea Disadvantages: Bad everything else
...Ryan stars as 'Mary Haines' the wife of a man who is cheating on her with the beautiful 'Crystal Allen' played by Eva Mendes. Her mother 'Leah' played by Candice Bergen advises her to keep quiet and play hard to get in order to win back her husband. Mary's friends on the other hand ('Sylvia' played by Annette Bening, 'Edie' played by Debra Messing and 'Alex' played by Jada Pinkett Smith) think she should let all hell break loose and let the husband ... ...leads to them going into the processes of divorce. Mary's daughter, Molly played by India Ennenga doesn't cope with the divorce so well and turns into a goth, skips school, wears inappropriate clothing and takes up smoking. To top it all of, Mary is fired from her job by her father and her best friend (Sylvia) sells the story of the 'high profile divorce' to a newspaper in return for somebody to write on her magazine. Furthermore, Sylvia goes behind ...
xKatieeex 25.07.2009 (26.07.2009)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of The Women
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Ever wondered what women really want ? Then no worries , as this is where this movie comes in handy. I first saw this movie on the last day of school before the Christmas holidays. Actually , we only saw half of it as I remember the bell going , and so we had to stop the film. However , I saw the whole movie a couple of nights back , when it was on the television.
What Women Want is an American film , released in the United Kingdom on 2nd February 2001. This movie was directed by Nancy Meyers and stars Mel Gibson. This film comes under the comedy , romance and fantasy genres and is a certificated twelve. Running time of the movie is one hundred and twenty seven minutes (seven minutes over two hours). What Women Want is available to buy from Amazon from a small price of £0.99
Nick is an advertising executive who has part of his ...
Advantages: Storyline, Humour Disadvantages: For most, maybe not for everyone
I've ended up watching "What Women Want" with my girlfriend about three times now over the last few days. I've even sat down to watch it with a crowd of guys who enjoyed it so much they ended up watching it six times in total even though I thought it was a bit of a chick flick in my opinion.
Storyline
************
The story is based around our main character who is named Nick Marshall who is a bit of ladies man with a macho ego. The movie begins showing us how he got this way from all the male fingers 'uncles' that he hung around as well as all the women he was around as a child.
The movie then shows us our main character in the present day as Nick is working for an advertising business in Chicago whose aim is to advertise female goods such as underwear and perfume etc.
Nick has previously been married but has been divorced ...
burns2007 29.08.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of what women want
This film is ok, it is not a classic, but it's not a bad film. Mel Gibson plays a great role as the hansom Nick Marshall who works in advertising. The advertising company Nick works for employs a new woman to be Nick's boss, Darcy McGuire, Darcy is played by Helen Hunt, and Darcy is hired to bring a woman's perspective to the ad campaigns. Nick on the other hand is not impressed as he thinks that he knows all about women and there needs.
Nick then goes home one night to get a bigger perspective on what women want by sampling some products women use, whilst doing this he has an accident, which is when his problems begin, he can hear the thoughts of all the women around him. After consulting a psychiatrist played by Bette Midler. Nick then decides to use his new power to his ability, so Nick uses his power to improve his love life as he ...
Contains moderate sex references and soft drug use
Video Category
Feature Film
Country Of Origin
United States of America
Plot
George Cukor's THE WOMEN gets updated with this female-friendly film from Diane English (MURPHY BROWN). Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, and Annette Bening star in this comedy where a group of close friends meet to talk about their relationships.
Release details
Studio(s)
ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO; CINRAM LOGISTICS
DVD Region
DVD
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Aspect Ratio
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound
Dolby Digital
Professional reviews
Review
What a pleasure this movie is, showcasing actresses I've admired for a long time, all at the top of their form (Chicago Sun-Times, 02/02/2009)
DVD Description
Packed with an all-star cast, Diane English's (MURPHY BROWN) contemporary version of THE WOMEN showcases the talents of Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett Smith, Candice Bergen, and Debra Messing. Like the 1939 original, the film deals with the relationships among a close-knit group of female friends, who, when their marriages fail and their lives are on the verge of falling apart, turn to each other for support. On the surface, Mary (Ryan) appears the happiest of the bunch, but her life changes instantly when her best friend Sylvia (Bening) discovers that Mary's husband's having an affair. The actresses frequently appear on screen as an ensemble, exhibiting a relaxed, compelling chemistry. The film feels cluttered at times, but perhaps that is fitting considering how much each female character has on her plate with regards to family, work, marriage, and friendship. Eva Mendes appears as the jaw-dropping beauty who is partially to blame for the fallout of Mary's marriage. As Mary's mother and the voice of wisdom, Bergen delivers the film's best lines with sarcasm, wit, and charm.
As in the SEX AND THE CITY movie, the message here seems to be that before finding love with a man, a woman must truly love and know herself. While Mary's high-society social standing enables her to start a fashion line on a whim and makes her self-transformation somewhat easy, female viewers from all walks of life are likely to recognize something relatable in the many women characters driving the film. One nice touch is that while much of the drama surrounds various marital problems, even the cheating husband in question never appears on screen. When you get down to it, the film's most important relationships are between the women themselves.
