The Women (2008)

A wealthy New Yorker wrestles with the decision to leave her cheating husband, as she and her friends discover that women really can have it all.

Director:

Diane English

Writers:

Diane English (screenplay), Clare Boothe Luce (play)

Stars:

Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Annette Bening

4 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meg Ryan	...	Mary Haines
Annette Bening	...	Sylvie Fowler
Eva Mendes	...	Crystal Allen
Debra Messing	...	Edie Cohen
Jada Pinkett Smith	...	Alex Fisher
Bette Midler	...	Leah Miller
Candice Bergen	...	Catherine Frazier
Carrie Fisher	...	Bailey Smith
Cloris Leachman	...	Maggie
Debi Mazar	...	Tanya
India Ennenga	...	Molly Haines
Jill Flint	...	Annie
Ana Gasteyer	...	Pat
Joanna Gleason	...	Barbara
Tilly Scott Pedersen	...	Uta

Storyline

Based on a very clever comedy by Claire Booth, wife of Time Publisher Henry Luce and later Ambassador to Italy. One of the surprises was an all-woman cast, novel in the 1930's. And although there were no men in the cast, most of the dialog was about them. The story is rather thin and depended on the fact that divorce, in the 1930's, was not only difficult but almost impossible in New York. Mrs. Stephen Haynes learns that her husband is seeing a salesgirl at Saks, and reluctantly divorces him, abetted by her friends, all of whom have romantic problems of their own. In the 1930's New York women who could afford it went to Nevada, where residency could be established quickly and divorce was relatively easy. The 1939 film, starring Norma Shearer, Paulette Goddard, Rosalind Russell, and Joan Crawford, was a hit. This one, with an even better looking cast, is definitely not, largely because someone tried to move a 1930's situation comedy into the present.

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Plot Keywords:

divorce | reference to madonna | new york | woman | perfume | 

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Taglines:

It's all about...

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sex-related material, language, some drug use and brief smoking

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 September 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Women

Filming Locations:

Bosse Sports - 141 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, Massachusetts, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,115,121, 14 September 2008

Gross USA:

$26,902,075

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$50,007,546

Company Credits

Production Co:

Picturehouse, Scion Films, Inferno Distribution

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Candice Bergen previously played Meg Ryan's mother in Rich and Famous (1981).

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Goofs

After Mary and Steven fight about the affair for the first time and she goes to the kitchen to Maggie and Uta, she sits at the table and eats butter with sugar and chocolate. When Mary is on camera the pot of sugar is open and a glass of milk is on the right. Then when Maggie sits down and the camera shoots from behind Mary the sugar is closed and the milk is on the left. It shifts and back and forth as the camera shoots Mary and then Maggie.

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Quotes

Catherine Frazier: [Over lunch, with her daughter - Meg Ryan] What'd you want me to do? Punish Daddy?

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Connections

Version of The Women (1939)

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Soundtracks

Womankind
Written by Annie Lennox and Nadirah 'Nadz' Seid (as Nadirah Seid)
Performed by Annie Lennox
Courtesy of Arista Records
By Arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment

User Reviews

Women only (in the cast, I mean). Delightful fun!!

I was flabbergasted by the negative critics starting this long list of reviews. I think their mistake was to compare this movie with the old original.

They have nothing to do with each other.

The original one is a classic, I love it fondly. This movie is based on the same novel, but it's absolutely contemporary. Another time, another way of thinking, another set of rules to move in society with.

The old elegance in clothes, the distinguished looks, the excellent manners, all gone..., gone with the wind. But let's face it, our concept of contemporary elegance is what it is, nothing will make us go back to the 1930s idea of elegance, or manners, and if somebody resents that fact..., MMMmmmm, I'm afraid they are out of sync. with the present.

Meg Ryan looks lovely; somebody complained that she cannot move her face... come on! what do you want her to do with it, a Cheeta number?? Her figure, and her legs! are first-class (so are Anne Benning's!!).

The cast is excellent and as everybody complains about Eva Mendez, the original character is exactly like her. Joan Crawford in the old movie couldn't --at the time-- play it so coarse, because of censorship and simply because at that time they didn't portrayed reality as harsh as we use to do it today. Period.

The movie is extremely entertaining, have some good laughs, the timing is excellent..., the photography flawless, the lighting impeccable, the sound perfect... anything else, El Exigente?

I don't think these crew made this film pretending to surpass Antonioni, Visconti or Bergman. I enjoyed very much the 'women alone' dialogs, since they never act like that when even just one man is present. And the speed, spontaneity and sincerity of these dialogs indicate that only a woman could have directed this film.

These group of women --with fantastic openness (something you will never find among men) when talking their hearts out, is so believable and attractive (at least to me), that I wanted this movie to go on forever!!

They made a light --very light-- piece of entertainment, that's all. What really bothered me reading the critics written by men, was their necessity to clarify before hand that "This isn't the kind of picture I would go to see by myself... ME, such a macho man..., I saw it because..." (some excuse or other). Wow! are we tied up in knots, guys!! What is happening out there with those old fashioned ideas about what a man is about!!

Wake up men, or we'll end up missing the boat irremediably!!