Mobile
Friday, September 12, 2008
Film Women scorned
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Sep 12, 2008 at 3:07 PM
A PLACE IN THE SUN: Mary (Meg Ryan, center), her daughter (India Ennenga) and her mother (Candice Bergen) get far away from the big-city scandals in The Women.
Claudette Barius / Picturehouse
Remake lacks vitality of classic original
By Matt Brunson
THE WOMEN
DIRECTED BY Diane English
STARS Meg Ryan, Annette Bening
The witty and wise 1939 screen version of The Women, based on Clare Booth Luce's play and helmed by "woman's director" George Cukor, has been unfortunately refashioned as a Sex and the City wanna-be, in the process losing all the smoldering conflicts and zesty support system of its classic predecessor.
In that version, Norma Shearer's angelic society woman had to decide whether to stay married to a husband who dared to dally with Joan Crawford's skanky shopgirl. With nary a male in sight but an all-female-cast to die for (Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard and Joan Fontaine were also part of the ensemble), the picture began with a playful title sequence (each character was juxtaposed with her animal kingdom counterpart, from innocent doe to wise owl to sly fox) and went on to examine females as complicated beings forced to simultaneously respond to social duties, potentially duplicitous acquaintances, and the demands of their own independent hearts. Predictably, this new version opens with a nod toward modern materialism (a woman mentally catalogues each item in a department store with an inner computer not unlike the Terminator's) and then proceeds to offer contemporary stereotypes rather than memorable individuals.
Here, everything has been smoothed out to the point of tepidity: Eva Mendes (as the hubby-swiper) is merely naughty where Crawford was lethal, and Russell's role as a backstabbing "frenemy" has been transformed into Annette Bening's tough-yet-tender magazine editor. Meanwhile, Meg Ryan (as the jilted spouse) doesn't stray too far from her established screen persona, while Jada Pinkett Smith's casting in a worthless role (cut it, and the movie doesn't change at all) demonstrates that writer-director Diane English was more interested in covering all demographics (black and lesbian, in the case of Smith and her character) than in making any salient points about 21st-century girl power.
Speaking of...
Latest in The CLog
More by Matt Brunson
-
Fanning flames of expectation
Apr 26, 2019 -
That burning sensation
Apr 19, 2019 -
Gentle giant
Apr 19, 2019 - More »
-
Lunch Break (9/1/16): Organizers unveil "People, Not Polluters" platform in Charlotte as McCrory officials testify in Raleigh
The morning already passed us by. What the hell happened?
-
Jigsaw, Dating App That Hides Users’ Faces, launches in Charlotte, NCTo Fight Superficial Dating App Culture 3
-
Question the Queen City: The story of Mabel Rea 4
The Charlotte native went Hollywood, returned home and met a tragic demise.
