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 In cinemas Thursday [PG]
Director: Diane English
Runtime: 114mins
If you’re a fan of Sex and the City, chances are you will relish The Women. Like the iconic SATC, The Women centres on a group of sassy New York 30- and 40-something femmes navigating the choppy waters between career and relationships, with friendship as their compass. But whereas we met SATC’s quartet as single girls and followed their journeys to motherhood and marriage – or not – The Women have already made those choices, maintaining their bond despite their lives taking different courses.
There’s the single fashion magazine editor, a designer/wife/mother, the earth mother pregnant with number six, and a lesbian social essayist. While we have only just met these characters, portraying them are actresses we already know and love for their intelligence, talent, style, strength, humour and beauty. And while there’s plenty of talk about men, there’s literally not one to be seen on screen – not that I’d actually noticed at the time (insert cliché about males’ dispensability here).
So it’s no surprise that Murphy Brown creator/writer Diane English has assembled a fabulous all-star cross-generational cast for her feature film directorial debut, adapted from the seminal 1930s film and play. Joining Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing and Jada Pinkett Smith are Candice Bergen, Bette Midler, Eva Mendes, Cloris Leachman, Carrie Fisher and Debi Mazar.
Thankfully the film’s opening, which shows these intimidatingly accomplished women living luxe lifestyles, soon gives way to typical foibles, dilemmas and failings.
The catalyst of Sylvie (Bening) discovering Mary’s (Ryan) husband is having an affair triggers a chain of events that tests the foundations of the women’s security. To tell or not to tell (that alone will produce a few debates – how could you not?) is just the tip of the iceberg.
Feminist and traditional perspectives also collide with Mary’s mother (Bergen) doling out old-fashioned turn-a-blind-eye-keep-the-family-together advice, prompting Mary to observe: “What do you think this is, some 1930s movie?” Another theme is the price (and myth) of “having it all”, and the struggle to balance our various facets and roles.
But with the same deft touch that won her three Emmys and Writers Guild awards, English’s script blends substance with style, turning out pithy observations that ring true, whether they be deep or frivolous. There’s the supermodel in anger management therapy, tearing strips off a serviette; and who hasn’t wondered why they put lighting in fitting rooms that makes us look like we’ve been hit by a meteor shower?
Like most jokes, the quip that men come and go but girlfriends are forever makes light of a deeper truth; anyone who has lost a best friend knows that it is as painful as a romantic break-up. Or even, as Sylvie says, “It’s the worst.”
I imagine The Women will deliver too much of an oestrogen hit for all but those men happily in touch with their feminine side, but it would certainly provide instructive insight into feminine mystique.
For its target audience, it’s spot on.
****
OLIVIA STEWART
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