The Women

Clare Booth Luce's play, The Women, has a special significance for me.  When I was a teenager, in drama class, we had to do two-person scenes from plays, and one of the scenes I chose was from this play.  From that scene, in which a woman discovers that her best friend's husband is having an affair, I was enchanted.  I longed to see a production of the entire play.

Years later, living in Manhattan, I had that chance.  I procured tickets to The Women for a group of my friends, and was able to see the entire juicy story of loyalty, jealousy, betrayal, gossip, catfights, truth, honesty, and friendship that makes women's relationships with each other so delicate, complicated, painful, and hilarious.

There is a movie version from 1939, directed by George Cukor and starring Joan Crawford, which was excellent and MUCH more true to the play....

When I saw that another movie version was being made, I was not inclined to see it, lest they royally screw it up or otherwise ruin it for me.  But somehow, on October 10, 2010, I added it to my Netflix queue, and despite having it in my house since this PAST October, I finally decided to watch it last week.  After all, Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing, Eva Mendes, et al can't ALL be wrong, right?

Actually, right.  While this version is updated for the 21st century (and therefore MUCH more loosely based on the play), this movie is good.  It's all the things I mention above, and a great chick flick.  Plus, as I remembered from the play, there are no men in it.  Literally.  Even the cheating husband never shown in person.

And Meg Ryan's plastic surgery isn't distracting, she looked basically fine, I thought.

Availability: DVD only

Released: 2008

Added to my queue: 10/10/2010

Reason added to my queue: Not sure!?!?