The Women

[osprey_archer]

I didn't watch The Women when it came out. The concept - an entire film with an all-female cast - is just the sort of thing I'd like, but the reviews put me off. I got the impression that the movie was terrible, and moreover that it was ostensibly about female friendship but was actually about how "female friendship" is an oxymoron.

But I saw the movie today, and apparently I got entirely the wrong idea from the reviews. It is a film about female friendship, and as such there are conflicts within the friendships (because conflict is the thing that moves a plot), but it's not a film about how female friendships are conflict ridden and aren't women so catty? and isn't that hilarious?, but about how relationships are difficult, and conflict happens, for women as well as men.

There is this pernicious ideal of Sisterhood, which probably has a more nuanced definition in actual feminist thought but in pop-feminism generally seems to translate into "Women don't fight each other ever, except they do, which obviously makes the whole idea of Sisterhood bogus, and if even women don't like each other than no one can be expected to like them which makes this whole feminism thing faintly ridiculous, doesn't it?"

It's funny how pop-feminism is often diametrically opposed to the real thing.

But The Women doesn't buy into that at all. I cannot help but think that this is one of the reasons the critics disliked it, just like they disliked The First Wives' Club and Mamma Mia!.

Comments

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

I had no desire to see The Women because all the promos made it seem like it was about an affair that someone's husband has. DNW. And to a lesser degree, Meg Ryan's face. Or, rather, the altered state of it.

Haha, maybe they read The First Wives Club book? Because I loooove the movie, but the book is all misandry & 'boys are stupid, throw rocks at them'.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

There is an affair, and while it's an important part of the movie it's not, like, the be-all and end-all of the movie. (What happened to Meg Ryan's face?)

I don't know that movie critics generally read books. I do think men often read misandry into just plain anger, and can't accept that the women in The First Wives' Club have a right to be angry, having been betrayed by their husbands and all.

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

Plastic surgery/Botox. Lots & lots. It really bothers me when an actress's mouth moves, but the rest of her face doesn't.

It was a best seller (lord knows why) before it was a movie, so somebody had to've read it. For once, I can say with 100% surety that the movie is better than the book.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

At a guess? When the book came out, there was an untapped market of recently divorced women who wanted to fantasize about revenge.

It always astonishes me when the movie is better than the book, though it happens often enough that I should really be merely surprised.

[silksieve.livejournal.com]

I didn't think this movie was about cattiness, but I didn't like it at all. To me, it felt like the movie was about strong women, but I thought it failed miserably in that respect.

Also, I'm starting to get annoyed by movies (and books) that say the only way to become "strong" is to "find yourself" and be true to the vision. Meanwhile, while Meg Ryan's character is doing all those cool exploratory things (before she sets up her own studio) she's living off her divorce settlement from her uber-rich husband. How many people do that?!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

It probably helped my opinion of The Women immensely that I went in with such low expectations. I'm curious, though, why you thought it failed as a film about strong women?

I agree that "finding yourself" is a wretched and overused plot. It's basically a romance, except you're falling in love with yourself/your Vision instead of another person, and as in a romance the act of falling in love somehow magically transforms you and allows you to solve all your problems.

That said - how many people do any of the things people routinely do in movies? All the ridiculous scenarios for falling in love, or the occurrences in basically every action movie ever - they're even more unlikely than big divorce settlements from rich husbands.

[silksieve.livejournal.com]

That said - how many people do any of the things people routinely do in movies? All the ridiculous scenarios for falling in love, or the occurrences in basically every action movie ever - they're even more unlikely than big divorce settlements from rich husbands.

True enough, but this movie was supposedly about the Truth of Oneself. Which is exactly my quibble--if everything else is implausible, then this central concept can't be the one exception. Also, Meg Ryan's character was super wishy-washy for me, and for the pre-divorce, her character was defined by who her husband was, and in a sense, the same is true for post-divorce because the freedom, the money that allowed her all her self-exploratory activities were from her husband...

Anyway, my two cents, which not everyone has to agree with :D

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

"Women don't fight each other ever, except they do, which obviously makes the whole idea of Sisterhood bogus, and if even women don't like each other than no one can be expected to like them which makes this whole feminism thing faintly ridiculous, doesn't it?"

Sad but true. And all the more so that it is often the women who make it so.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

That quote seems to be a common subtheme in Nora Ephron films, which drives me crazy because there are so few female directors, why does the most successful have to make movies that I dislike?