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 | new york | woman | perfume | beauty salon | 

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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:

Todo sobre las mujeres

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, Wide Release

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

There is an abundance of the use of the color green, from the color of the sets, props, costumes, in almost every scene throughout the movie. In the final fashion show, except for the models, almost every guest is wearing green.

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Goofs

While Mary and Sylvie are changing into their scrubs before they go into the delivery room for the birth of Edie's baby, Mary puts the right bootie on twice.

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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

Referenced in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Episode #7.136 (2009)

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Soundtracks

I'll Cry For The Both Of Us
Written by Jessie Baylin and John Keller
Performed by Jessie Baylin
Courtesy of The Verve Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

No lessons learned

As a Spanish tourist in Los Angeles and a fanatic movie lover I committed a terrible mistake. I went to see "The Women" The remake of one of my all time favorites. I've seen the original many many times, in fact I own it. My rushing to see the remake was based on Diane English, the woman responsible for "Murphy Brown" My though was: how bad can it be? She must know what she's doing. Well, I don't know what to say. I don't understand what happened. The Botoxed women is a rather depressing affair. Meg Ryan or whoever played Mary - she looked a bit like a grotesque version of Meg Ryan...another actress perhaps wearing a Meg Ryan mask - she doesn't bring to the character nothing of what Norma Shearer did in 1939. The new one is a tired, unconvincing prototype of what has become a farce within a farce. The "friends" Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinket Smith are as disconnected as anything I've ever seen and if this wasn't enough: Eva Mendes as Crystal, the character created by Joan Crawford in one of her best and funniest performances. Eva Mendes's casting is really the poster sign for how wrong, how ill conceived this commercial attempt turned up. I didn't give it a 1 out respect for Candice Bergen and Cloris Leachman