It was a great movie, one that I was able to watch multiple times because the storyline is intriguing, though it answered the questions that needed to be answered, and left some details about "What happened to..." to the imagination. The dynamics of Mary and Sylvie's friendship was real, and the 4 friends bond was genuine as well. The characters all had an identity which seemed to go beyond the screen. The Women is a drama-- comedy, one which had enough drama to keep me interested, but not too much comedy that the substance of the film was lost, a balance not always achieved in movies today. Definitely a movie you could watch more than once without being bored or losing interest, and the all female cast was an idea that could easily make or break a movie, but casting was not at all an issue, in my opinion.

Much Woody Allen style soul-searching and social satire surrounds this fairly simple story about an upscale she-pack who discover that one of their members has a cheating husband. And, of course, they need to provide her with emotional, if not moral, support.The surreal gimmick in this film is that, with one exception, the entire cast of The Women is female, not just the major players but the extras. All the waiters and diners in a crowded restaurant are women. We are not, however, talking about a female version of The Hunt for Red October because there are men central to the story even if they are talked about like Niles Crane's Maris, never seen or heard. And that's just as well because they are the bastards who cheated. When Mary (Meg Ryan) finally throws out her philandering husband, the confrontation is relayed second-hand to us via the maid. The daughter watches sadly as dad's possessions are tossed out on the lawn.A more accurate title would have been The New York City Women because of the sad plight of that particular demographic who find that men and love are getting to be a scarce commodity. The invisible men in this film are a metaphor for real-life statistics. In NYC men are only 47 percent of the population. In college 40 percent are men. Even fewer of them want to get married. And of the ones who will marry, half will stray. Is it any wonder that women might have the feeling that men are disappearing? Mothers in fly-over land laugh at these big-city broads agonizing over the balance of career and family because even though they may have never been to Saks, at least their daughters aren't smoking cigarettes to keep their weight down, getting tattoos or studying to be hookers. Mary barely gives her daughter the time of day but kids need pretty much full-time adult supervision. With absent fathers and mothers who divide their time between boutiques, career and lunch with friends, the supervision is getting pretty spotty.It isn't really the women who are at fault, it's the men. Back around 1968 women knew what they wanted, they wanted to get married and have children. How tedious and boring. The guys have always known what they want -- boys just want to have fun. They bought the message of their leader, Hugh Hefner, and suckered women with a Three-Card Monte game of "feminism". Women thought they were picking the Queen of Diamonds but got the Joker instead.Some people might think this obsession women have with love, relationships and marriage is somehow trivial but it really is the most important thing in the world. The birth rate in the Western world is declining and has fallen below the replacement rate in several countries. We worry about declining populations of Spotted Owls or White Whales but what about the White Human? The final minute of this film makes it clear, if we don't get this business right, not only will the men disappear but all of us will.

The original 1939 "The Women" garnered some really die hard followers. There are message boards still going on it. "I have two questions; first, what did she say about _______; and, second _________." Someone comes along a few posts later and says she can answer the first part of the question, and does, but not sure yet about the second. It's that embedded. Most of the fan-atics of the original warned against any attempt to remake something so perfect. They jumped on "The Opposite Sex," and trounced that rather thoroughly. It was a bad movie. But, their full fury is earned here. It turns out their dire prediction of failure is vindicated in both cases. At least "The Opposite Sex" changed the name before they changed it all around. Here, it's not only a change-around, but an even further deterioration in flow, timing, direction, authenticity with added errors in casting and performance. Don't directors know how to say "cut" anymore? This should be followed by a firm instruction as to what's really going on here, how the characters feel in this scene, and, let's start again from – whatever point. They used to say at the end of filming that it's in the can, meaning the finished reel is in its metal case and ready to be distributed. Sadly, this weak effort with its canned performances was finished before production ended, and quite unready for distribution.

10_It's unfunny.09_No men ? That made things boring, forced, and a bit strange especially while a scene like the one in which the 2 maids were repeating all the wife and husband's argument, let alone the endless one-side phone calls, the "he said to me.." lines. Overall it's a dull move that mirrors a complex the movie's she-makers suffer where men for them are "very obnoxious so let's make them invisible", or "we can succeed totally without them". Did you notice how it has no character of a positive man, albeit as a remote intimation ?! Even (Debra Messing)'s husband wasn't there for her delivery ! 08_An extremely monotonous pace. The director made nothing special.07_ Concedences. (Annette Bening) knew about the affair from the shop's girl by coincidence. Then (Meg Ryan) knew about the same affair from the same shop's girl also by coincidence. Then (Bening) and (Ryan) met the affair itself, (Eva Mendes), at another shop by coincidence as well. And that was done in just the first half hour ?! Well, I got the pattern, this movie has a coincidence every 10 minutes !06_ What's going on ? At first you think that this is a movie about 4 women. Then we have the main story of one of them. Then at the last 10 minutes we come back with them?? In any case, it couldn't be a comedy, or any enjoyable different movie about 4 women either! 05_(Candice Bergen) ??? What the hell she's doing here ?!!!04_(Jada Pinkett-Smith) as lesbian ? OK, that was only for winning extra bucks from the box office, more than anything. And her acting ?? It looked exactly like a lousy parody of her real life husband Will Smith. Terribly lousy !03_The long, very long, 3 screams of (Debra Messing) while the intolerable scene of giving birth. And they were stupid enough to put that in the trailer. What kind of a twisted mind that saw that as a good thing ?! This is drastically annoying and no fun. It deserves a Razzie award apart. God have mercy on the ones who had to watch it in the theaters! 02_(Meg Ryan) ?? OH MY GOD. She used to be a sweetheart…once. Now she looks unsightly and creepy. I thought this is an odd look-alike who has her same sweet spirit and cute reactions, or this is really her yet wearing a frightful mask that made her face as a nasty caricature! If they give me the choice to be a woman with wrinkles or to be The Women's (Ryan), I'll choose anything but the last. You can say that again about (Annette Bening). The thing isn't about the shock of the sight only, it's rather about features that stop acting anymore. I felt all the time as if I watch (Death Becomes Her 2), or a horrific documentary about the actresses above 40 in Hollywood ! It pushed me to keep thinking; that's more important issue to make a movie about than the one I'm watching, naming it "The Freaks" instead, with a tagline that says "Forget Dracula. Forget Frankenstein. Now we have Botox and Plastic Surgery. And they're BETTER", at least it would be an explicit Horror !01_The heroine comes back to her husband through a phone call ??? Anyone agrees to shoot that is an idiot !Now I have an opinion of a friend of mine. I always be aware of her viewpoints about movies, since she told me one time "Men in Black ?? This is so boring. I fell asleep in front of it after the first 5 minutes" (?????!!!!!!!!). She told me about The Women "what a great movie", so when I told her smiling "I didn't like it", she replayed so seriously disgusted "Men !". I believe she has 2 things in common with this movie's makers; they're the only creatures who actually love this movie, and they hate men ! It's a mix of soft colors and deformed women. Yet the worst part isn't its pedantry, it is its fact as a silly romantic tackiness, with nothing new except its ugly – once lovely – stars, and its viewpoint about what a great place the world is without men !. In brief, save (Eva Mendes) in that black underwear, this is awful. I can't think of anybody who may watch it again, even my crazy friend !