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Dir. Diane English

Rating: 4.0  |  2 User Reviews  |  Send to Friend

By Lauren Macaluso

As you might imagine, the film consists of four female friends: Mary (Meg Ryan), Sylvia (Annette Benning), Edie (Debra Messing), and Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith). When Mary discovers her husband is seeing the “spritzer girl” at Saks (Eve Mendes) her life inevitably falls apart. She gets a divorce, forgets she’s a mother to a daughter that is seriously on the verge of rebellion, and then reinvents herself to make it all better. You might feel this is well-trod-upon territory and you'd be right. In fact, we have literally seen it before, the film is a remake of 1939’s Academy Award winning film of the same name, directed by George Cukor. As always, when re-making a classic film such as this, there are a few things that need to be taken into account. For one thing, the actress chosen for the main role has to be able live up to the talent of the original -- in this case, the indomitable Norma Shearer. Unfortunately, Meg Ryan does not suffer the comparison terribly well. There is something she still has to learn about showing emotional intensity without crying. When Mary finds out her husband is having an affair the subtleties in her face should be all that is required to feel her pain, instead of the whole weepy, high-pitched thing Ryan has so often utilized. Also, first-time director Diane English should take note that mocking her own movie as remake should not be written into the script as a punch line. English simply, but not tastefully, re-wrote the script to be as modern as possible, with all the requisite clichés firmly in place. Of course, it has to be expected that a comparison between 2008 and 1939 women in the work place is going to be widely different, but honestly what is the law that decrees all broken-hearted female characters have to be fashion designers?

2 User Reviews

Rating: 9.0

By: Mike Mac

i totally agree with Ms. Macaluso about Meg Ryan, i probably wouldnt see this movie because its a chick flick even though i believe Eva Mendes is very attractive, but great review

Rating: 10.0

By: Mike

i agree with this review about meg ryan, i'll probably go see this movie because i like eva mendes a lot

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