Movie Reviews

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Review in a Hurry: Based on George Cukor's 1939 film (and Clare Booth Luce's 1936 play), The Women gets a makeover for the Sex and the City generation. But like a bad Botox job, the end result is strangely lifeless. Ah well…at least this flat comedy won't give you laugh lines.

The Bigger Picture: It could've been catty, backbiting fun. But in revamping The Women, writer-director (and Murphy Brown creator) Diane English has declawed and defanged the material, so—despite the pregnant-with-possibility situations—the fur never flies. And neither does her film.

Instead of a scheming socialite, as originally played by Rosalind Russell, Sylvie Fowler (Annette Bening) is a top magazine editor and devoted friend to aspiring fashion designer Mary Haines (Meg Ryan). When Sylvie hears that Mary's hubby is cheating, she and gal-pals Edie (Debra Messing) and Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith) seek out his mistress, Crystal (Eva Mendes).

Learning of the affair, Mary pursues a divorce and inadvertently neglects mommy duties to her tween daughter. She also—in a trumped-up plot change—breaks off her friendship with Sylvie, who betrays Mary's trust to save her own job.

As the gold-digging shopgirl, Mendes steps into Joan Crawford's big stilettos, but it's not a good fit. Mendes may be sexy but lacks Crawford's ferocity and delicious cunning (not to mention acting chops), so she makes a dull villainess. Cloris Leachman as Mary's saucy housekeeper and Bette Midler as a Hollywood mega-agent help to jazz things up, but only briefly.

Without enough high drama or high camp to hold your interest, you might find your mind wandering and wondering: Why does Ryan's hairdo look like piles of corkscrew pasta? And what is up with her lips? How much money did the filmmakers get for blatantly hawking Dove, Lexus and Saks Fifth Avenue? Do we really need another climactic hospital sequence with a shrieking mom giving birth? And what would Carrie Bradshaw & Co. have done with this same story?

The 180—a Second Opinion: The black-and-white MGM classic included a dazzling fashion show shot in Technicolor. The catwalk montage in this update doesn't disappoint, with glam designs that are predominantly…black and white. How ironic!