Donne senza uomini

Some movies beg indulgence form the audience. This movie should beg forgiveness from the people who financed it. Based on a novel by James Canon and adapted for the screen and directed by Gabriela Tagliavini, the story (what little there is of it) concerns the women of a remote Latin American town who are forced to pick up the pieces and remake their world when all the town's men are forcibly recruited by communist guerrillas. They are devastated that they have to do 'men's work' such as cleaning the town and governing the village. The local priest (Oscar Nuñez) prays to God and is instructed that he must populate the village with new men by sleeping with all the women of childbearing age. Unable to perform his duties, he is ostracized. One woman (Eva Longoria) becomes mayor and the women gradually make the town a women's place - yes, even to the point of deciding that physical relationships between women are just fine and clothing is optional. A side bar story that simply doesn't fit is the presence of a reporter (Christian Slater) who is sent by his boss (Camryn Manheim) to get a front page article about the little town of only women. Et cetera.....

The lines these poor actors are giving are so poor that they are embarrassing, but the level of acting in general is on the junior high school level. Slater has so little to do that it seems as though he was hired simply to sell tickets in the theaters. This is a 'must miss' little bit of deflated fluff.

Grady Harp

Film has a good enough premise but little else. Small Mexican community loses all of its men when they're all rounded up against their will to fight in some unnamed war and the women end up taking over just fine thank you...but as time goes on they find themselves missing their men and wonder what they're gonna do for survival ultimately deciding to try and repopulate their town by sleeping with the one man who is still there--the local priest! (played in a Way over the top performance by Oscar Nunez from "The Office" and "The Proposal") Meanwhile in an almost completely tacked on subplot hotshot intrepid war correspondent Chrisitan Slater is told of this village and sets out on his own to find it as a human interest story in the midst of all this war.

Movie keeps you watching in hopes that it will go somewhere interesting or so but ultimately goes nowhere. It doesn't help that almost every character in the movie is a one dimensional cartoon character--and even less subtle too boot. Film would actually be a complete and total mess were it not for the professional performance of Eva Longoria here. In fact I would go so far to say the reason why the film works at all would be because of the slightly greater depth Longoria gives her character. She actually manages to make her character seem like a better thought out character then the other assorted characters here and while i don't know if that's because the script focuses more on her or if its because Longoria gets to resemble an actual human being as opposed to the more comically exaggerated people here, i give her all the credit in the world for providing the film with someone to actually somewhat care about. (if only Slater's character had been given as much screen time to develop into someone worth caring about as well) Longoria plays the uptight wife of the mayor who gladly takes over after her husband is taken alongside the other men. Film is mostly about how she comes into her own while taking charge and making decisions for once, and also how she learns to loosen up while engaging in a flirtation with a lesbian drifter who becomes the sheriff of the town (as well as the town's resident bad ass) As a case of a former wallflower coming into her own the film actually works---as anything else however the film really doesn't. The film's tone is very broad and played in an over the top farcical style which doesn't really gel with the subject matter. While its nice to see a film with this subject matter not played in heavy handed award baiting sympathy mode...i'm not sure if taking the complete opposite tone was the right track either. The mixture of tones-- wild sex farce and true love amongst suffering village women could work well but doesn't really come off as well as it could here. The film should play well on cable TV tho where the bright colors and bouncy energy will help it stand out from what else is on tho it might not sustain your interest past the second or third commercial break.

Review: The director done a bad job putting this movie together because the storyline had the makings for a good movie. It's been made so you don't take it that seriously, although the there are some moments that make you think about how you would react if you was in that situation. The main problem isn't with the acting, which was played by some quite attractive women, but its the way that the some what, serious situation, was portrayed as an unfunny comedy. Disappointing!

Round-Up: This is another one of those movies were they have put the main attraction, which in this case is supposed to be Christian Slater, all over the poster when he has nothing to really do with it. Maria Conchita Alonso who has starred in movies like the Running Man & Colors, has had way too much plastic surgery. It makes her look like a totally different and strange person. Eva Longoria looks great, as usual, but it made me feel a bit uncomfortable, watching her playing such a terrible role.

Budget: $4.7million (On What?) Worldwide Gross: N/A

I recommend this movie to people who like there silly comedies about women living without men. 1/10

The creators of this film seemed to believe that the heavy sexual undertones and half clothed women would carry this film. They were mistaken.

The movie begins with Christian Slater, a reporter stuck scrounging for a story, coming across a journal of Oscar Nunez (Oscar from The Office). Oscar describes a village that had all of it's men carried away to fight in a war which left all of the women to fend for themselves. Considering many of them can't read or write, or even change a light bulb, this would be no easy task. Eva Longoria declares herself mayor and tries to get everyone to work together to build the Utopian town of women.

From the beginning this movie was hard to sit through. It became obvious very early on that the movie would not be carried on it's own but rather gambled on the fact that the hope of seeing girl on girl action would keep the viewer in their place. I cringed at the thought that Christian Slater, Oscar Nunez, and Eva Longoria actually read this script and went on board to make this ridiculous movie.

The acting and storyline were bad and the only thing I came away with is wishing I could have that part of my life back. I would have rather gotten the laundry caught up.

I didn't think that in this day and age and how far we have advanced, that a movie could be this bad. To think that people sat in a room and said, I think this is a good idea for a movie, AND people agreed to do it!!??? Shame on everyone involved to put this garbage out. I guess people will do anything for money! This movie is easily one of the worst movies EVER made hence its 2.3 score. I sat through about the first 10 minutes of the movie and couldn't continue. My wife sat through it because she's an Eva Longoria fan, but after this movie I'm not so sure anymore. Horrible acting, horrible story with horrible attempts at I'm not sure what accents. Did I say this movie was horrible? Don't waste your time and show these people you wouldn't stand for this kind of garbage anymore.