Women vs. Men

Never having heard of this film before, I saw the DVD at the video store and rented it on the strength of the cast, particularly, Reiser and Mantegna. I was amazed by the intelligence in the writing for these characters and their wives, Headly and Lahti, respectively. The pacing of the dialog and the chemistry of the characters flows like a Neil Simon play, a West Wing episode, or Mad About You. The two couples find themselves facing self-revelation after twenty years of marriage. It is a rite of passage that lies somewhere between middle-age crisis and incontinence (as Reiser's character, Bruce, discovers when he finds there are no books written for this crossroads in life). The honesty is hilarious. Pastorelli's character, Nick, is poignantly funny with his harmless, yet blatantly effective seduction prowess. I'm glad this was a two day rental, because I had to see it again. This would make a great stage play.

A movie that tries to explain why people do what they do. People don't realize what their part is in what their spouses do. While you need to own your actions...there are still other forces at play...and the loss of pure intimacy (not sex) and flirting and "the dance"...something we all actually crave. Its funny with a message.

The age-old enigmatic subtleties of woman/man relationships, which are the origins of the conflicts hilariously and passionately depicted,requires a non-self-centered viewpoint who has actually had conscious experience that there may actually BE viewpoints other than his/her own and actually cares about their coincidence or divergence. George very obviously has no such viewpoint; therefore his total non-comprehension of what is going on in this excellent movie. His mean-spirited revue is quite revealing about his own character.(Take note, ladies.)I am certain that he was trashing "Taming Of The Shrew", back when he was reviewing The Bard, with equal nastiness. He revealed himself by his mystification as to why the great cast would do such "trash" (cracked me up!). Their spot-on characterizations could not have been done so freely had they not all "been there" --- a place where George has never been. If you dig what I mean, watch the movie. REAL Women and REAL Men love it!

"Women vs Men" is an uninspired regurgitation of all the same old trite and tired battle of the sexes stuff with a few new buzz words pounded into the pathetically flat script to give it a contempo edge. With a svelte Lahti and a bearded Metegna as the lead couple in the war, you'd expect this tv fare to be a shoe-in. Instead it plays out like one long and incredibly boring drone of endless banter. Simply awful. PU! Yuck! (D)

If you don't like relationship films, I won't get you started. Skip this and live a happier life.

But, if you like movies about real people, this one's a winner. (Don't be confused by it's designation as a "comedy" -- you'll laugh, but it's not "funny, ha-ha." It's a humorous drama, a la "Diner" or "to Gillian on her 39th Birthday" -- if you didn't like those movies, you won't like this one.)

The acting, writing, and direction work together to put you in the middle of a really bad day in the marriage of Michael (Mantegna) & Dana (Lahti). They've hit that point in a relationship where everything's great, but nothing's right anymore. They're about ready to break up because they can't figure out how to talk about their problems with each other... perhaps because neither is sure what those problems are.

Unlike most movies where people are having trouble talking to each other, these folks really try. Dana talks to Brita (Headly) and Mike talks to Bruce (Resier). Even without the flashbacks, you can really feel that these people have been living in each other's lives for decades. Dana & Mike want to break their vicious cycle, but keep falling into their old patterns. They get angry, say (or do) the wrong thing (realizing how wrong it is) and back themselves into a corner.

Throughout, they try to keep a sense of humor about it all. Mike & Bruce make each other laugh, as do Dana & Brita...and we're laughing with them.

They're all smart and thoughtful and yet have trouble keeping their eye on the prize, maybe because they've forgotten that it takes work to make a relationship work, even (especially?) after 20 years.

For a movie that takes place in just a single day and in so few sets, it's surprisingly open and light. Palminteri's direction is fantastic. He makes a scene where the boys head to a strip club seem intimate and quiet while a scene where a single male strips for the two girls seem raucous and rowdy.

Palminteri gets the best performance I've seen out of Mantegna and the most intimate out of Reiser, so perhaps Palminteri remembers something about acting (even if he can't, in my opinion, act his way out of a paper bag). The women are equally amazing (Lahti and Headly showing they're more than just solid TV-series actors).

Despite the trauma that these folks go through, you'll enjoy spending 90 minutes watching them watch their lives fall apart. And watching them pick up the pieces because they're still crazy (in love) after all these years.

I rated this 9/10.