Affaires de femmes

All the dialogue and the story is too expository by half. They might as well have had a sledgehammer. But this DVD is always always out at my local video shop. Why? Because lesbians are crying out for films that render us visible. No matter that it only takes up one of the four stories or no matter how bad it is. And this one is not the worst by far. How could Elle Macpherson making love to a woman ever be wrong? At any rate, film lovers, if you want a good lesbian film then get onto Showtime and New Line and Dreamworks and Paramount and tell them to invest in the dozens of awesome scripts featuring same sex themes that ARE out there.

Don't watch this film without the volume control in your hand. The director let the actors whisper exactly half their lines, and the sound technicians did nothing about it. VERY IRRITATING. The bad writing and cliches were delivered surprisingly well most of the time, but you could see that the actors were uncomfortable with a lot of the dialogue. Some scenes were cut to fit the songs rather than having the songs fit the scenes. McPherson's hair wisps came and went at random as the multiple takes must have spanned days -- the wisp would cover an eye, disappear in the next angle, then move behind an ear as the angle returned to the original shot. It became quite comical. The four different stories were tied together by Channing as a psychiatrist. In case you missed the tedious point of each one, she recapped each story's moral into a tape recorder at the end of the episode. Unless you are snowed in, don't bother with this four hour marathon. Half of it should have been left on the cutting room floor, and you can never recover wasted time!

I aborted viewing this abomination of a script within the first 10 minutes--although the writing was on the wall only after a minute or two. In a nutshell, this film is an egregious waste of top talent-and everyone's time, no matter how much of a fan you are of any one of the consummate actresses. They deserve much better, and it proves the fact that even a top rate performer cannot make up for a horrible script.

Most astute U.S. movie viewers have recognized the talents and skills of the excellent Stockard Channing. More gratifying than seeing her quality finally recognized with the rolls she has played in both "A Girl Thing" (TV mini series)and in the White House centered series is the appearance of the former series as an entire movie available in both VHS and DVD in video stores nationwide. As a psychiatrist whose patients are mostly women she serves as the hub through which the four different patient centered episodes revolve.

Although the first three would result in a "good" movie, we are not let off or let down by that being the case. In the forth and final episode Channing (the "doctor") figures not just peripherally as the center but is the main character around which the drama unfolds. Confronted by an intelligent and dangerously angry patient, the doctor fails to establish any healthy connection and terminates the patient. This soon results in a violent confrontation, which puts the doctor, another patient and a few others in an explosively dangerous situation in the psychiatrist's office. Channing herself is challenged to justify all that she has done, is doing and believes in concerning people in general and her professional relationships with them in particular.

Does she make a good showing for herself? Is anyone hurt, and, if so how badly?

Watch the movie and find out.

This movie was great, acting was wonderful... but it left me with a disturbing thought. I very RARELY see a movie about men that depict them in a fair light. Take HBO's new comedy, "Mind Of The Married Man", it depicts men as being horny and uncontrollably sex crazed. In most of TV sitcoms, men are morons, and their women bail them out. "Family Matters", "Simpsons", "Everybody Loves Raymond", "Malcolm In the Middle", even one of me favorite, "Cosby Show". "The Man Show" might be a funny show, but it doesn't speak for all men. I support the female movement 100%, but maybe it's time there should be a male movement. The TV shows listed are, (for the most part), all fine shows, I just think there should be more TV and Films in the other direction as well.