Mary Haines (Meg Ryan) lives in a beautiful suburban Connecticut home with her wealthy financier husband Stephen, their 11-year-old daughter Molly, their housekeeper Maggie (Cloris Leachman) and nanny, Uta (Tilly Scott Pedersen). Her best friend since college, Sylvie Fowler (Annette Bening), is the editor of prominent fashion magazine Cache that dictates the latest in taste and style for New York City fashionistas. Mary finds out that her husband is cheating on her with a perfume salesgirl at Saks Fifth Avenue, Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes) from her chatty manicurist Tanya Winkleman (Debi Mazar) and is struck numb at the news. Unaware that Mary already knows, Sylvie informs the other 2 in their group housewife Edie Cohen (Debra Messing) and lesbian author Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett Smith) while they are on the way to take Mary to the airport for some time away with her mother and daughter. The trip is Mary's mother Catherine's (Candice Bergen) idea to play games with Stephen by making herself unavailable to make him want her more than Crystal. The friends then find out Mary knows about the affair before they can tell her. The cracks in the relationship between Mary and Sylvie start to show when Sylvie turns the situation into something about her when she berates Mary for not telling her that she knew.
Maggie cares for the family deeply as does Uta, but she reminds her young charge not to get involved with the families she works for because at anytime a divorce can happen then you have to leave. Catherine skillfully schools her daughter in how to finesse Stephen into ending his affair and seemingly does a great job. However, after a confrontation with Crystal (egged on by Sylvie) in their shared lingerie boutique in which she finds out that Stephen, for all his apologizing is not only still seeing Crystal, but paying her bills, Mary leaves Stephen and eventually files for a divorce.
More complications between Sylvie and Mary arise when Sylvie (on thin ice at work) desperately sells Mary down the river when she agrees to trade a contributing piece by syndicated gossip columnist Bailey Smith (Carrie Fisher) for confirmation of the breakup of Mary's marriage. Mary's knowledge of Sylvie's dirty doings comes at dinner with the 4 friends when Sylvie sees what damage the Page Six embarrassment has done to her best friend and she confesses. Mary, almost undone at all the betrayal from those closest to her, breaks off all contact with Sylvie. Sylvie continuously tries to apologize, but Mary is too hurt by the actions of her longtime friend. It all eventually becomes too much to ignore when Mary finds out that the childless Sylvie has become Molly's confidante instead of her and she hunts Sylvie down for a confrontation. Mary becomes close to Maggie and Uta, but Maggie still tries to remain all-business. Mary even tells Maggie she loves her, but she doesn't verbally return the sentiment, although she obviously does emotionally.
All is not lost for Mary, however. She has taken some time for herself at an Ashram-like retreat and met agent Leah Miller (Bette Midler). Leah gave Mary advice about taking care of herself first and when she arrived back home, Mary asked herself, "What Do I Want?" Mary's dream was always to be Donna Karan and with her mother's backing, she set about creating a small collection of her own. Over time she broke out of her self-imposed shell and made some long-needed changes as she created her own collection. She also decided, when all she needed to be rid of Stephen was to sign her divorce papers, not to simply let Crystal have him.
After finding out from Molly that Stephen just has Crystal around because he's lonely and can't have Mary, she decides to get her husband back. She drops in on Tanya and arranges for her newly reconciled friend Sylvie to do so at the same time to spin a yarn they are sure will get back Crystal about Stephen sleeping with Mary. Mary even has her nails painted the "Jungle Red" Tanya first offered her in the beginning of the movie, which she eschewed for her boring beige color. Molly gets in on the action by telling Crystal that her father is intrigued with her mother again because he's heard about her living out her dream and he finds it "sexy."
On the night of Mary's fashion show, everyone is in attendance (even Stephen, who has sent flowers and his wedding ring asking if he can get to know Mary again and wondering if he has lost his chance). Molly is now proud of her mother and they've become close, Sylvie (who has quit her job due to not only her decision that hurt Mary, but after she passed off someone else's ideas as her own) has not only come to support Mary, but has brought with her the buyer from Saks Fifth Avenue. Edie is now 9 months pregnant and Alex has finally finished her book. Before leaving to the show Maggie allows Mary to hug her and even hugs her back, yet can not return Mary's "I love you." She does impart some motherly advice that shows how proud she is of her, and after Mary leaves Uta chides her for "getting involved." The show is a fabulous success, and the buyer has asked Mary to put a collection together for the coming Spring. Mary is happy, but not sure if she wants to continue to take on so much. As Edie comes to congratulate Mary, she informs her that she must leave early because her water has just broken.
The 4 women race to the hospital and they all are in the delivery room with Edie. During the labor, Edie reveals that she, like Stephen, cheated and her husband forgave her. This revelation and the fact that Mary has finally put herself first lead her to accept a date with Stephen (who has been calling her nonstop) for the following week. After the birth the women are shown to have moved on: Sylvie started her own magazine and Alex is on her second book (the first one being a best seller).
Production
In The Women: The Legacy, a bonus feature on the DVD release of the film, Diane English discusses her fifteen-year-long struggle to bring a contemporary version of the 1939 classic film to the screen. She wanted to present a version in which the female characters were strong and self-reliant and supported and defended each other rather than resort to treachery and catty remarks to achieve their goals. Since the concept of women going to Reno in search of a divorce is archaic, she needed to eliminate this aspect of the original plot from her treatment, which necessitated deleting several characters from the story.
English wrote the first screenplay in 1993 during hiatus from Murphy Brown. The following year, Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan agreed to co-produce and star, with James L. Brooks as director and a supporting cast including Blythe Danner, Marisa Tomei, Debi Mazar, and Candice Bergen. In 1996, the first table reading of the script was held on the Sony Pictures lot. Despite the enthusiasm of everyone involved, the project stalled when Roberts and Ryan decided they wanted to play the same role.
English spent the following year revising the screenplay, during which time Brooks dropped out to direct As Good as It Gets. Roberts also lost interest and moved on. English first entertained the idea of directing the film herself in 2001. Over the next few years, Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Uma Thurman, Whitney Houston, and Queen Latifah were among those to express interest, although none were attached officially.
After being turned down by every major Hollywood studio, English decided to develop the project as an independent film and approached Victoria Pearman, the president of Mick Jagger's production company, Jagged Films, who agreed to produce the film for Picturehouse. Pearman offered some plot suggestions, and English put the finishing touches on the seventh and final draft of the script. Upon the film's completion, it was shown to executives at Warner Bros., which had absorbed Picturehouse in the interim. Unimpressed, they put the film on the back burner until the box office success of Sex and the City convinced them there was an audience for an all-female film [1].
The film was shot on location in New York City and Georgetown, Gloucester, Sudbury, Medfield, and Boston in Massachusetts. As with the play and 1939 film, English was careful to make sure no men appear on screen, even in long shots and crowd scenes. The only male character in the film is Edie's baby boy, born in the final scene of the film.[2]
Cast
* Meg Ryan ..... Mary Haines
* Annette Bening ..... Sylvie Fowler
* Eva Mendes ..... Crystal Allen
* Debra Messing ..... Edie Cohen
* Jada Pinkett Smith ..... Alex Fisher
* Candice Bergen ..... Catherine Frazier
* Cloris Leachman ..... Maggie
* Bette Midler ..... Leah Miller
* Carrie Fisher ..... Bailey Smith
* Debi Mazar ..... Tanya
* Ana Gasteyer ..... Pat
* Lynn Whitfield ..... Glenda Hill
* Joanna Gleason ..... Barbara Delacorte
* Keegan Connor Tracy ..... Dolly Dupuyster
* Natasha Alam ..... Natasha
* India Ennenga ..... Molly Haines
Critical reception
The film received an overwhelmingly negative response from critics and holds only a 13% rating on the web aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.
A.O. Scott of the New York Times called the film "a witless, straining mess" and added, "You wait in vain for a moment of snappy repartee, of fresh emotion, of grace or charm or pathos ... If The Women had managed to give its various impulses some kind of coherent shape or tone, it might be worth arguing about. As it is, the movie wanders and wallows, stumbling toward screwball before veering in the direction of weepiness and grasping at satirical urbanity along the way ... Rarely has class struggle, or catfighting, for that matter, been so tediously waged. And rarely have so many fine actresses been enlisted in such a futile cause."
Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times observed, "While the original film ... saw itself as a catty entertainment about New York society women coping with the infidelity of the husband of one of their friends, English has something grander and more complex in mind ... This version sees itself as both a farce and a manifesto, a glorification of female friendship and a celebration of women's need for self-realization ... All that would be a handful to pull off for the most experienced filmmaker, but English has never directed before, and it shows. The visual choices she makes in The Women are invariably static, and except for whatever energy the performers can manage, the storytelling has a dispiriting flatness to it ... The film becomes unfocused as it stumbles over all the points it wants to make. Given English's writing skills, the dialogue doesn't help as much as it should, tending too much toward one-liners that aim for raunchy whenever possible. Never particularly believable, the story quickly unravels into schematic contrivance and wish-fulfillment fantasy."
David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "English doesn't make much of it very enjoyable. She's so careful to resist the Neanderthal sensibilities of the original film, she often neglects to make her version of the story, well, fun. Worse, it's only occasionally believable ... Even those who never saw Cukor's movie will feel something is missing in English's version. Yes, some of what's missing is humor and snappy dialogue, but that could be forgiven, if only some of the characters were more believable and the direction not quite as uneven. English knows how to get good performances out of her cast, but her pacing is languid and sloppy, so much so that one is tempted to believe that for all she knows about pacing a 30-minute sitcom, English isn't quite ready to tackle the longer form."
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film one out of four stars, calling it a "misbegotten redo" and "a major dud." He added, "Everyone ... struggles with a script that resists being crowbarred into the 21st century."
Richard Schickel of Time called the film "one of the worst movies I've ever seen."
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was one of the few critics who enjoyed the film. He awarded it three out of four stars and commented, "What a pleasure this movie is, showcasing actresses I've admired for a long time, all at the top of their form ... Diane English ... focuses on story and character, and even in a movie that sometimes plays like an infomercial for Saks Fifth Avenue, we find ourselves intrigued by these women ... The Women isn't a great movie, but how could it be? Too many characters and too much melodrama for that, and the comedy has to be somewhat muted to make the characters semi-believable. But as a well-crafted, well-written and well-acted entertainment, it drew me in and got its job done."
Box Office
Despite the mostly negative reviews, the film was a moderate box office success. On its opening weekend, the film earned $10,115,210, ranking #4 behind Righteous Kill, The Family That Preys, and Burn After Reading. The film eventually grossed $26,902,075 in the US and $21,786,726 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $48,688,801. [9]
DVD release
The film was released on DVD by New Line Home Video (whose sister company Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1939 original) on December 19, 2008 in the USA and 19 March 2009 in the UK. Viewers have the option of either anamorphic widescreen or fullscreen formats and subtitles in either English for the hearing-impaired or Spanish. Bonus features include deleted scenes, The Women: The Legacy, which charts the film from its 1936 stage roots to the 1939 adaptation to the contemporary update, and The Women Behind the Women, in which cast and crew members discuss issues of female empowerment, body image, and self-esteem for girls.
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