review: “The Women”

rating: 6/10

If it is possible to overdose on estrogen, “The Women” could be the pill.

As the Diane English directed film is rightly named “The Women,” there is not a single scene in the movie with a man.

Instead, the film is all about four women who do what women do best: gossip, shop and talk trash about the men in their lives.

The story revolves around Mary Haines (Meg Ryan), who finds out that her husband is cheating on her with a floozy who works a perfume counter (Eva Mendes).

Her unique array of friends, including the uptight and cut-throat magazine editor (Annette Bening), the lesbian author and womanizing party-goer, (Jada Pinkett-Smith), and the always pregnant mother of too many (Debra Messing), try their best to keep her together during her time of need.

Though the supporting actresses are fun to watch, their characters are too overdramatic.

Pinkett-Smith seems like she is trying too hard to convince audiences she is a lesbian as she comments on how hot every other woman is, totes around her sexy model girlfriend that she dates just for looks and sits down at a fancy restaurant with her legs wide open. She seems to embody the crude and manly stereotype of lesbians and appears very out of place with the other women.

Messing and Bening are equally over-the-top as Bening never has a hair out of place and will stop at nothing to keep her high-pressure job, and Messing’s home is wallpapered in children’s artwork.

The only truly relatable character is Mary, as Ryan brings forth a down-to-earth mother that most women can relate to.

After finding out about her husband’s infidelity, she falls apart and realizes that she doesn’t know who she is anymore, and has been a bad mother. However, after smoking a joint with Leah Miller (Bette Midler) on a retreat and speaking to her mother (Candice Bergen), who is recovering from plastic surgery, she gets her life in order and spends the rest of the film finding her true self and attempting to spend more time with her daughter.

Though it is an interesting idea to have a movie with a full cast of women, there were a few scenes that became awkward without the presence of a man.

A crucial and gripping argument between Mary and her husband was relayed through the housekeepers, as one told the other what happened upstairs. Instead of seeing the emotional conflict between unfaithful husband and angry wife unfold, you have to hear about it, because heaven forbid the scene have a man in it.

The movie is great to see with the girls, but don’t even think about taking your man to this one.

No man can survive 114 minutes of pure estrogen.