Without Men

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

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.

A nice movie to get your time pass with the hot Mexican actress and good story line on which their husbands has been taken away for war and all the wives left in the town. A very well pictured artistically about a small Latin town.

A very good feel to watch this movie.

It is the story adopted from "Tales from the Town of Widows" by -James Cañón

The Plot starts with the narration of a church father of the small town scene in which government authorities capture men from a small town to let them fight in the war. Many of those men try to escape from the officers but still they were caught and only church father is left along with another guy(who is a jerk and henpecked) who been dressed up like a woman with the help of his wife is left in the town and the rest of the other men were taken away. Slowly the absence of men in that little town leads a miserable life to their wives and all the wives discuss to solve the issue by themselves. The Mayor's wife(Eva Longoria) leads the town as a new mayor and others follow their husbands roles in the town like doctor, police, milkman etc.

The only problem is how to reproduce their heirs without their men thinking their men will return from the war or not. In this scenario all the ladies think to have an intercourse with the church father in order to make children. The church father who sleeps with lot of women in the town but unable to produce any children as he later reveals that he is an impotent and he runs away from the town as all the women beats him to go away. A new woman(Kate del Castillo) shows up in the town with little manly looks in her and she will be attracted by the lady mayor. Then the story goes on with lust full nature of these 2 women and a man(Christian Slater) from war arrives the town unintentionally, that man is attracted by all the women in the town but he refuses for their proposition and let the men in the war know that their wives are waiting for their men. Later at the end all men will return from the war to meet their wives.

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.

Get your friends, get your popcorn and simply sit back and relax. The film is lighthearted, funny and vivacious, Eva Longoria shows she can indeed carry a movie, Christian Slater is so charismatic and especially Fernanda Romero sticks out in the cast. A new star is born. A town without men bares its challenges an when even the priest fails to keep the women in line and his fertility is an issue, you know you are in for an interesting ride. Tagliavini proves herself as a savvy screenwriter AND director both, sticks close to the book, yet gives its own strength and colors. The cinematography is stunning...matched by wonderful score. All in all simply a movie to love.