The Women

[mrsl]

I know we've discussed this movie but I searched everything I could think of to find the thread and . . . nothing.

Well. . . How can they turn an interesting, entertaining, funny, sad, irritating movie into this boring, over-long, dry, populated by stupid, vapid, bottomland mud suckers piece of junk? I've never been able to decide between The Women and Casablanca as my very favorite movie, but even so, when I saw the new remake, I was astounded at how bad it was.

In the first place the first movie was about women's friendships and closeness and how they stick up for each other except for the one two timing snake (Sylvia). In the original Sylvia's husband was snatched up by Paulette Goddard, thereby deleting one of the best and funniest things in the original - the cat fight between the two 'ladies'. Instead they made the separations not only for Mary and her husband, but for Mary and her daughter, and Mary and Sylvia, and Mary and her Mother. I couldn't make out if this was a comedy or a drama . . . most of it was dramatic. All the comedic characters and situations were taken out like Countess de Lave, played brilliantly by Bette Midler (she should have had a bigger part), she was the best thing in the movie, and the Marjorie Main character who was often keeping tempers down wasn't even in this one. The dumbest thing was the little daughter who was well on her way to being anorexic and Mom didn't even realize the signs. (Mom had worked with models in the past). How can any Mom today not see those signs, especially one as worldly as her.

My first really, really, real teenage movie was Where the Boys Are, which brought out all my teenage angst. They remade it when I was about 35 and it made me so sad to see they had changed the drinking beer to doing drugs, and the hot guy wanting to share the girl with his buddies. I knew the reviews for The Women were bad, but some people said some of the parts were done well, but I didn't see it. The only good thing was Bette Midler as far as I could see.

Anne