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The lack of women in a movie doesn’t necessarily make it a bad flick. A movie with a primarily female cast – even an extremely well-acted one – is not necessarily a movie that all women will enjoy, either. Take, for example, two flicks out this summer: Waitress and Ocean’s 13.
Waitress, a movie about a woman, with a large female cast, and directed by a woman, was reviewed at BlogHer by Jenny Lauck, who loved it. I had read glowing reviews of it as well, and when a friend suggested that we see it and then get some pie, I was all over it. Then I discovered that I hated the movie. Its dreamy take on domestic violence, unplanned pregnancy, cheating on your spouse, and stalking caused me to come up with a Movie-So-Over-The-Top-That-I-Want-Puke-Pie. I appreciate that it created a forum for women’s voices and an opportunity to show case female talent, but it wasn’t my slice of pie.
Ocean’s 13, on the other hand, pretty much dispenses with women, but at least it mindlessly entertained me. Gone are Julia Roberts’s Tess and Catherine Zeta Jones’s Isabel, women with brains and guts, if maybe not the wisest taste in men. (Although I can’t say I blame them for falling for such good natured hotties.) In is sizzling Ellen Barkin as Abigail, the highly competent right-hand “man†to an evil casino owner about to get his comeuppance from the Ocean crew. Unfortunately, Abby is played for laughs in a much less flattering way than previous women of Oceans. She is, as Matt Damon’s super adorable character explains, a “cougar.†You know, one of those hot older women on the prowl for young man meat. (Currently, the habits of “cougars†may be scruntized on TV vying for some tennis guy against younger women – gag with me now, aka “kittens†– on Age of Love, a show I refuse to watch on NBC on Monday nights.) And of course her attraction to young men is part of her downfall. Bah. This is no better than the cloying characters in Waitress.
There are happy mediums and other options. A movie doesn’t have to be 50% female (or 50% male) to be great, and Matt Damon doesn’t always appear in movies with lame women. OK, so Vera Farmiga didn’t serve much purpose except to have sex with two hot men (Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio) in The Departed, but I liked that movie a lot anyway. (Great acting by Damon, DiCaprio, and Mark Wahlberg, the only hot guy in the movie that Farmiga’s character didn’t hook up with, made it fantastic. And who can resist Martin Sheen and Alex Baldwin when they give it their all?) I loved Franka Potente in The Bourne Identity, and am looking forward to more Julia Stiles and Joan Allen when The Bourne Ultimatum hits theaters. People are raving about A Mighty Heart, which I would also like to see, and which features a very strong female lead.
Sometimes, all it takes is realistic, identifiable portrayals of women to make me love a film. Sometimes all it takes a good doody joke. That’s life, too.
Suzanne also blogs at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants
