The Women (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Candice Bergen, Cloris Leachman, Bette Midler) – Based on a 1936 play by Claire Boothe Luce – playwright, war correspondent, magazine editor, Congresswoman and ambassador – The Women was made into a movie comedy in 1939 starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Paulette Goddard and Rosalind Russell, and directed by the legendary George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story, My Fair Lady, Adam’s Rib, A Star is Born and many others). That movie featured an all-female cast, a really, really big deal in 1939, the year of Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. This remake is true to at least the basic plot of the original.
Directed by TV’s Diane English, The New Women stars Meg Ryan as Mary Haines, the seemingly perfect society wife whose husband is a big financier. She hangs with her best friend since college, Sylvie, played only a little over-the-top by Annette Bening who is quite difference from her An American President look. Sylvie is a magazine editor trying to revive a fashion magazine but doing so with the old idea that people want content, not star-driven covers and gossip. She and Mary also hang with two other “best friends,” Edie (TV’s Grace Deb Messing) and Alex, the now-obligatory unapologetic lesbian played by Jada Pinkett Smith. The girls find out that Mary’s husband is having an affair with the perfume spritzer at Saks, a bombshell of an unrepentant man-stealer, perfectly portrayed in every way by Eva Mendes (Hitch, We Own The Night). They decide to tell Mary, who knows already. She is devastated in every way. Up to this point, the plot mirrors the 1939 movie.
With their obsession on the relationships among them, on Mary’s plight and on Saks, I was tempted to call this “Saks in the City.” But this movie is far better than this summer’s reprise of that TV show if, for no other reason, than the actresses are better. There is a wonderful role for Candice Bergen as Mary’s rich mom (don’t forget, it was English who wrote and directed many episodes of Murphy Brown) and a little role for Bette Midler as a former diva who sets Mary on a new path. The scene-stealer, however, is Des Moines’ own Cloris Leachman as Mary’s wisecracking maid, who plays this part almost identically to her role as Tea Leoni’s mother in Spanglish. The all-female cast carries this off well, and I think even guys can enjoy the movie – three of us attended the showing I was at.
Meg returns to the romantic comedy, girl-next-door kinds of roles that made her the chick flick darling of the 1980s and 90s – from Sleepless in Seattle to You’ve Got Mail to French Kiss, etc. – after trying drama when she aged beyond the cute chick roles. She is older … and the plastic surgery is a little obvious … but she is still a fine comedic actress. Bening assumes the role Kim Cattrall plays in “Sex” and does it with a swagger that is tinged with more self-doubt than Cattrall. She just turned 50 and shows it a little but still looks fabulous. Deb Messing is, to me, Lucille Ball. And as soon as someone realizes it, she might become a first-rate star. She is hysterical in this film, particularly in the birthing scenes at the end of the movie that you have seen part of in the trailers. And Jada Pinkett Smith is just fine as the fourth banana. The lesbian thing looked like a nod to be politically correct here and she adds little to the film itself, but she is more than window dressing in this “buddy” flick. I’d recommend this movie with more than a casual thumbs up.