Friday, April 10, 2009
The Women (2008)
- Who's watched: G
- Mentions: none
- Commentary: This is one of the few movies I've purchased since Mom died. It came out the Tuesday after she died. We'd talked about getting it so that we could compare it with the first version and looked forward to seeing it. I'd talked, the week before she died, about it's release coming up the next week. Thus, of course, I bought it.
There are two critical schools of thought on this remake. The first is echoed in the link to the title of the movie above. The second is here, courtesy of The New York Times. The former expresses my sentiments, although not completely. Roger Ebert seems not to have watched either movie closely enough to realize that the remake actually follows the structure of the first one very closely. Some of the dialogue is even repeated. The resolution is completely different and the satire is toned down significantly so, yes, these are two "different" movies. And, I definitely missed the presence of the hats and the silly clothes that Sylvia wears in the first movie. I also missed the hilarious actress credit sequence from the first movie that wasn't even attempted in the second. I was curious to see what the producers of the remake would do with that. The second movie also explores the eternal mother character much better than the first, and I like the twist in the remake on the relationship between the mother and daughter. The first is much cattier, but the second portrays deeper friendships which would be trivialized by the catty fast talk of the first. Both movies, as well, have interesting fashion runway sequences. My preference is for the first. I prefer the context, love the fact that the movie switches to color for that sequence, and I love the clothes in the first movies' fashion sequence much better than the clothes in the second. I should have been born so that I could have been in my clothes-horse prime during the thirties through the early forties. For satiric dazzle I prefer the first movie. For emotional satisfaction I prefer the second. I'd love to know which my mother would have preferred. I will be keeping both movies.
You'll notice that I categorized the first as a romance. It was. I can't categorize the second as such, because it isn't; unless you count romancing one's friends, and one's self, which is a clear slant of the second movie. Ah, what the hell; why not. It's a romance. Just not the usual kind.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Meg Ryan Mary Haines Annette Bening Sylvia Fowler Eva Mendes Crystal Allen Debra Messing Edie Cohen Jada Pinkett Smith Alex Fisher Candice Bergen Catherine Frazier Cloris Leachman Maggie Debi Mazar Tanya Bette Midler Leah Miller Carrie Fisher Bailey Smith India Ennenga Molly Haines Lynn Whitfield Glenda Hill
In case you have trouble accessing the NYT review of this movie, above [NYT is now a major butt about free access to their newspaper. They weren't when I originally wrote this post. When will these oligarchic publishers learn! Probably not until the people with pitchforks come for them.], there are two alternate links, one to the Wikipedia article and the refreshed link (my former link had gone bad) in the title to Roger Ebert's review.
Release Date: 2008
Directed by Diane English.
Labels: 21st-century-chick-flicks, annette-bening, candice-bergen, debi-mazar, dramedy1, female-director3, meg-ryan, popcorn-and-soda2, romance2, satire1, women's-movie1
