estrogen overload

oftentimes, picking a random dvd off the rental store shelf is a horrible idea. but sometimes it can turn out to be a good move.

on a lazy, hung over saturday i wandered over to my friendly gayborhood video store with nothing specific in mind. i took a risk by picking up a movie i had never heard of, but i figured that with meg ryan, anette bening, debra messing, jada pinkett-smith, and candice bergen (love her) on the cover, it couldn't be too bad. and although i made that mistake before with hugh jackman, this time it turned out to be a smart move.

The Women may be a straight-to-DVD hollywood failure, but i recommend it nonetheless. everyone in it is a star, even filling the minor roles (bette midler, debi mazar, eva mendes).

more interesting, though: everyone in the film is a woman. not one man -- neither cast nor extra nor random passer-by in the busy streets of manhattan, where it was filmed -- appears on the screen until the very end of the film (but i won't give anything a way, just in cases). it's kind of amazing.


according to annoying and obsolete Entertainment Weekly, which keeps sending me effing magazines despite my repeated cancellations, The Women has been in the works for over a decade. initially, meg "i'm cute. cute. cute!" ryan teamed up with julia roberts to make the project happen, but they faaaailed. finally meg had to do it on her own.

the film is a remake of a 1939 film, which was based on an earlier all-female play, all staying true to the original story: a group of women rally together to take care of a friend who has just learned of her husband's affair. inspiration and entertainment ensue.

you might be wondering why a guy like me would want to watch a melodrama with an all-female cast, but -- well, no. it's actually quite stereotypical of me.

at any rate, my fave moment of the film came when the amazing candice bergen, as a cool and collected socialite, cracks and opens up to meg ryan about her own relationship tribulations:

It feels like someone kicked you in the stomach. It feels like your heart stopped beating. Feels like that dream-- you know, the one when you're falling and you want so desperately to wake up before you hit the ground, but its all out of your control.
You can't trust anything anymore, no one is who they say they are, your life is changed forever.
And the only thing to come out of the whole ugly experience is that no one will be able to break your heart like that again....

if you haven't seen it (and i'm pretty sure no one has), do yourself a favor and spend your lazy, hung over weekend afternoon watching this netflix/rental store gem.

if for no other reason, watch this movie to see the amazing plastic work on this cast of gorgeous, tightly-pulled, fresh-faced stars. 3 words: meg ryan's lips.

it's encouraging to know that we can all look 25 and hot when we're in our 50's and 60's.