Star rating ** Dir: Diane English With: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing
Diane English's The Women has the dubious distinction of being not only a pointless remake of George Cukor's 1939 classic, but also a below-par rip-off of Sex and the City.
Meg Ryan stars as Mary Haines, a modern woman struggling to come to terms with a cheating husband, a crumbling career and the betrayal of a best friend (played by Annette Bening). But while writer-director English claims that her update is "a valentine to today's woman", very little of what ensues actually rings true.
By focusing on a group of hideously rich and ultra-glamorous New York women (including Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith and Candice Bergen), the director loses touch with reality and fails to deliver a character truly worth caring about. The result is frequently as laboured and painful as the protracted childbirth scene that brings the movie to a close.
