When a college friend of theirs commits suicide Annie,
Brenda, and Elise are reunited at the funeral, each with their own sad marital
tale to tell. It transpires that all three have given their husbands the best
years of their lives and helped them to the nth degree in gaining their
success, only to be discarded and replaced with younger models. But rather than
take it lying down, the girls decide to join forces and bring their husbands to
their knees…some of them literally.
I’ve seen this movie twice before and it’s
still a hard one for me to love. I
mean I like it immensely: it’s filled with delightful one liners that are both
sassy and snide as well as a plot that just takes this unexpected turn for the
wow, but it was made during and reflects a time that remains mediocre and
unappealing to me. I’ve been told that this movie was a reflection of a period
where divorces and husbands going for younger women were incredibly common,
thus when it came out it was something special because everyone could identify or
relate to in some way. My lack of years fails me yet again it seems. But
anyway…
When a college friend of theirs commits suicide Annie, Brenda, and
Elise are reunited at the funeral, each with their own sad marital tale to
tell. It transpires that all three have given their husbands the best years of
their lives and helped them to the nth degree in gaining their success, only to
be discarded and replaced with younger models. But rather than take it lying
down, the girls decide to join forces and bring their husbands to their
knees…some of them literally.
The story seems to be this predictable yet
undeniably funny battle of the sexes: wives getting back at their husbands,
women getting back at men, and ladies not taking middle age lying down. It also
seems to be this story of friendship; a three musketeers thing if you will that
gets threatened when tensions run high. But what really makes this movie is the
surprise twist of the plot. If I’ve piqued your interest, you’ll just have to
run down to your local Blockbuster and grab a copy to see for yourself. I
believe in not giving away too many details of a movie.
The script is brilliant
it has to be said. It’s this fantastic, fast-paced, and spontaneous traffic jam
of sassy and snide one-liners and because all the best lines are spoken by
women, it gives the movie this wonderful and biting wit that just wouldn’t have
had the same effect if they’d been spoken by men.
Our three leading ladies are
wonderful, each one playing off the other so well and when they all break out
and sing defiantly and triumphantly at the end, that’s something to behold. You
cannot help but smile at that.
Starring Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, Goldie
Hawn, Maggie Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dan Hedaya, Stephen Collins, Marcia
Gay Harden, Victor Garber and Stockard Channing, The First Wives Club is a very charming and indeed one-of-a-kind
movie that still will gain a response from everyone, even if they don’t quite
understand the context. Filled with comedy, drama, schemes, and friendship, it’s
a movie that you can come back to every once in a while and discover something
new about it.
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