Cynical Cinema

“What do you think this is, some kind of 1930s movie?”

The Women, out Friday December 19th from Alliance Films, does a lot of things right.  And a lot of things wrong.  First, the things it does right.  The main thing it does right is in selecting an outstanding cast.  Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Candice Bergen, Debi Mazar, and Bette Midler are all tremendous actresses, and in one way or another, almost all of them are female-empowerment icons.  So to have them all in the same cast, in a movie about women, for women, called The Women, is a great achievement.

The Women is a remake of a George Cukor movie of the same name from 1939, which was based on a great play by Clare Boothe Luce, and wisely director Diane English keeps the plot basically identical, down to the names of the characters.  Cukor’s movie was a magnificent comedy, and a great adaptation of the play, and it was a good idea not to screw around too much with the setup or the characters.  Annette Bening is playing a role originally played by the great Rosalind Russell, and she is good.  Meg Ryan is playing Mary, the Norma Shearer role, and Eva Mendes vamps it up as the homewrecking, husband-stealing Crystal Allen, as well or even better than Joan Crawford did in 1939.

The cameo appearances are all very well done.  Bette Midler is terrific as a wild, free-spirited woman who meets up with Meg Ryan after she has discovered her husband is cheating, and over a shared joint she imparts some wisdom to Mary in a scene that is short but memorable.  Carrie Fisher is an inspired casting choice as a devious woman who has an encounter with Annette Bening, an encounter which leads to the disintegration of her relationship with Meg Ryan.  (Of course, these are catty, gossipy women, and the disintegration of any friendship is going to be temporary.  I don’t think I’m giving anything away here.)

The four women who are best-friends at the centre of the story are good together.  Jada Pinkett-Smith, Debra Messing, Annette Bening and Meg Ryan are all actresses worth watching just about any time.  And they have genuine conversations that are compelling, especially one between Ryan and Bening when they re-connect and patch up their friendship.  This is the scene with the best dialogue in the movie.

Now the bad stuff.  Jada Pinkett-Smith plays a lesbian.  Which is kind of neat for a second, but it soon becomes apparent that this is a cheesy plot device.  You see, there are no men in this movie.  At all.  No taxi drivers or busboys or doormen.  Nothing.  We never see, or even hear, Mary’s adulterous husband Steve.  The women shop at Saks, several times, where the only people in the store are women.  The only people working there are women.  They get their hair done and they go to manicurists, all of whom are women in establishments frequented only by women.  All of which makes sense.  But then they have to go out to dinner at a restaurant.  What kind of restaurant is frequented only by women?  Oh…a lesbian bar.  Or, I guess, a lesbian restaurant.  Do they have those?  I don’t know.  But then, it’s a good thing one of them is a lesbian so they have a reason to go to this restaurant.  Contrived much?

Now, the biggest problem.  Everything, at every moment in this movie, feels like it’s been ripped off from somewhere else.  And I don’t mean from the 1939 The Women.  The names and plot are taken from that film, but that doesn’t feel ripped off.  It’s more of a tribute.  But 2008’s The Women feels like the George Cukor movie, redone, as filtered through the templates of chick-flick fare over the past forty years.  It’s the 1939 The Women as processed through Nine Months, The First Wives Club, and of course Sex And The City.  There are four women…they talk frankly and bitchily about sex and relationships, they use smart-ass quasi-witty words, they worry about fashion, they hang onto each other for advice…OK.  We’ve seen this before.  It was called Sex And the City, and I didn’t like it much then either.

And the final thing that is wrong with The Women.  It drives me nuts when chick flicks think that throwing in all the things they think women love is enough to make women love…the movie.  Like, in The Women.  Where the announcement of a pregnancy is cause for oohs and aahs.  And the problems of life are discovered and solved over manicures and hairstyles.  And the dropping of brand names is de rigeur, and a totally normal part of regular conversation.  And then, the worst thing chick flicks do - the painful, obvious, stupid final scene of Debra Messing giving birth - get it?  Women love babies!  And the other three women freaking out and running around and acting bonkers in the delivery room.  Hilarious?  No.  Stupid. 

This is the worst scene in any movie aimed at women.  It was done once, in Nine Months, and that was enough.  People panicking in delivery rooms is no longer funny.  Women giving birth and yelling at people because they are in so much pain and they just want to get this baby out of me is no longer funny.  It is now irritating, painful, and the worst possible way to end a movie that could otherwise have been reasonably good.  What I hope for this movie, more than anything, is that it gets people to watch the George Cukor The Women from 1939.  Because that film was excellent.  And this one sure isn’t.

I am getting pretty sick of reviewing Madagascar. I reviewed it when it first came out on DVD, and I said it was “meh”. It then came out on Blu-Ray September 23rd, and I said it was “meh” with nicer pictures and a few more special features. And now, Madagascar, Holiday Edition is coming out November 4th, from Paramount Home Entertainment. What makes it a “holiday edition”? Well…there is a cardboard sleeve over the DVD with a red border, and what look to be Christmas lights. There is also a special feature called The Penguins In A Christmas Caper. So…Christmas edition, then?

No. Here’s the deal - that Christmas Caper short? It’s on the original DVD. And on the Blu-Ray. In fact, there are no new special features at all. Everything on this DVD was on the original DVD. Except for that red border and the Christmas lights. That’s the only new thing in this entire package. So why bother? Well, it puts it in a better location on store shelves in time for Christmas, and people might pick it up, but more than that - it calls attention to Madagascar 2: Escape To Africa, which hits theatres this Friday. So consider this a success, Paramount - Madaagascar 2: Escape From Africa is in theatres Friday. Tell your kids!

Reign Over Me is the type of movie that could very easily end up as a giant pile of maudlin sentimentality, one of those feel-bad-then-feel-good movies that irritate me so much.  Like The Pursuit Of Happyness, or The Green Mile.  In this case, it’s a little more visceral, 9/11 being something that touched everyone, so on a certain level we get it.  But what makes this movie great is that it doesn’t dwell on the “9/11“ part of the story, but rather the aftermath.  Adam Sandler plays a guy who was successful and happy until his family were all killed during the terrorist attacks.  But the fact that they died on September 11th really has nothing to do with the film.  It just gives us a reference point.  They could have died in a car crash, or a house fire, and it would have been the same.  It’s about a man who is incapable of dealing with his grief, and Sandler is terrific.

Come to think of it, is it maybe time that Adam Sandler gives up on comedy altogether?  His last few comedies have been dreadful (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry?  Come ON).  In fact, outside Happy Gilmore, I can’t remember genuinely laughing through any of his comedies.  And yet, when he gets a chance to be an actual actor, like in Punch Drunk Love, he is very good!  And maybe he is capable only of playing damaged human beings, as he did in that movie and this one, but it’s surely a lot better than anything else he does.  Look at Robin Williams.  He made - what…ONE good comedy?  And yet he too is known as a “comic actor”.  Aside from Mrs. Doubtfire, I can’t think of a single good Robin Williams comedy.  And yet I can think of several good Robin Williams movies.  If he didn’t do that maniac crazy stand-up and those maniac crazy interviews, he could perhaps be known for Good Will Hunting, and Dead Poets Society, and One Hour Photo.  But no, he will always be identified with Popeye and RV and Fathers Day and Death To Smoochy.  Which is, frankly, a painful legacy.  Sandler is still young enough to reverse the trend and do some quality work, the way Jim Carrey is (trying to) do.

There are a few other things that make Reign Over Me great.  Of course, Don Cheadle, who is always terrific.  He plays Sandler’s old college roommate, who runs into him on the street and attempts to rekindle their friendship.  Cheadle is damaged in his own way, and Sandler’s character becomes a few things for him.  A source of comfort, I think, in the sense that “at least my life isn’t this”, a source of envy - “this guy can do whatever he wants, and no one will complain”, and a charity case.  Cheadle wants to help him, and it’s a genuine desire, but it’s still a charity case.  Also the music.  OK, I have a soft spot for The Who (Reign O’er Me), and the classic rock references throughout the movie are terrific - the scene where Adam Sandler berates a faux-Bob Seger fan is priceless.  And the references to Quadrophenia are peppered throughout the film, with the song Regin O’er Me figuring prominently several times.  Once you’ve watched this movie, you will never hear that song the same way again.