The new "Jungle Red" comedy

What are we women about if not about trendy nail color?

(I have about two manis a year and even I drool at Chanel's line...)

Picturehouse invited me to a sneak screening of THE WOMEN tonight, a movie I've really looked forward to and I'm happy to say -- it did not disappoint. Well, BLA readers I know what you're thinking... and I'm here to tell you that THE WOMEN which will open Friday (Picturehouse) is not your mother's chick flick (although she probably will like it) and it is not just another SEX AND THE CITY although there are similarities (I don't know about you but my mom doesn't really like SATC which, I do believe, is part of its appeal)... but here's the delicious surprise about THE WOMEN: it's funny.

Like LOL in your seat funny.

I know many male critics will probably dislike it (I can hear Roeper now) or compare it to a Nancy Meyers film and it is Meyers-esque but it is more than that because it has something most sap-fests lack: wit.

It's also heartfelt and touching in the right places and holds the reins a little more tightly then a run-a-way chick flick for which this viewer is grateful. Is this SATC? No. The women are not single (for the most part) and are not 30 (or playing 30s) and no one mutters the word "Cosmo." But it isn't a poor imitation either (can you say Lipstick Jungle ?). This is a movie. Its own movie. A movie which happens to be written & directed by a woman, Diane English, too. (Yes male BLA readers the X chromosomes just took over for a moment.)

If you love old movies as much as I do (and who doesn't love an era when Chinese cuisine was considered exotic and people had big houses with big yards and big trees and referred to the suburbs as a "bedroom community"... ?) - you will be happy to know English made a faithful re-interpretation. I have to say, her work was cut out for her. The original version (the 1930s version with my all time fave Rosalind Russell not the weird 50s version) is a classic but it is mostly a send up of superficial, high society Manhattanites back in the day and so this being 2008 we kinda needed a version that had women doing more than scheming ways to "keep" their man. Yet, in updating a film from that great era you don't want to lose the charm or more importantly -- the wit. And Bluestocking LA is here to report, dear readers, that this version inspires and delights with its wit and one-liners; that was what was most surprising -- it's funny. So many times films try to be "screwball" or fast-talking and capture that witty repartee and fail miserably but this film delivers. Most notably in the minor characters too (Cloris Leachman nearly steals her scenes with great lines (the Jehovah's Witness one for instance) which is probably a testimony to English's TV background (Murphy Brown) which understands the crucial role small, supporting characters play.

The film is perfectly cast, from Debra Messing's spot on comedic timing (and 1930s-esque, Medieval meets Cinderella's stepsister hair), to Annette Bening who is in her element playing funny-uptight, to underused Jada, to older but still lovable ingenue-ish Meg Ryan... it's good to see Meg Ryan again... I like her in this. And of course a pot-smoking cameo from the Divine Miss M (why should Apatow characters have all the fun?). I also like Debi Mazar as the nail girl (riffing on her real-life discovery by Madonna) but true to the original... it's a sweet touch that English kept the "jungle red" nail polish trope throughout.

(In life imitating art, I happened to get a manicure before going to the screening in the trendy dark brown/black color - see photo -- {btw, Chanel's Blue Metallic is the new black polish this year} I digress... anyway, the Persian woman next to me, faux boobs and real Dior sunglasses, regaled us women with a tale of her divorce. She left Bel Air and moved to an apartment on Wilshire and got full custody of the kids and spread her newly painted "jungle red" nails arms wide, proclaiming "I'm free!" So, yeah, the movie is accurate and not much has changed since the 1930s... granted I was at a cheapie Vietnamese nail shop in Tehrangeles and not Saks, but you get the gist...)

so many funny lines, such as when Sylvie (Annette) says, "I'm the man I want to marry" and Alex (Jada)'s line when rushing Edie (Messing) to the hospital to deliver her baby, she rushes up to the on-call Nurse who asks if Messing has insurance, "she's had four, when you've had four kids, the fifth one's free!"

While it veers close to careening off into sappy territory (and what girl has the postcard perfect relationship with her mother? Well, maybe if your mom is Candice Bergen...) the movie is sweet and fun and makes a good point or two and best of all -- is funny. Seriously funny. We really root for Meg Ryan and want "Crystal" to get hers. But this is testimony to English's hand as writer-director, she goes beyond the 'my husband's cheating on me' theme of the original to make it something more. Does Meg Ryan have perfect hair and a perfect house and perfect career? Yes. But so what. Discovering your husband is cheating on you with a salesgirl and then seeing that salesgirl in a bustier and stockings while charging it to your husband's Amex... well, that's just not something you'd wish on your worst enemy.

English does a nice job in this female-only cast (save one tiny exception) of giving us an updated homage to the 1930s original with real wit and an attempt at some truly heartfelt moments... this and shopping and friendship/relationship drama? What more could a girl ask for...

my next mani will feature the Chanel Blue metallic for all things Bluestocking.

BluestockingLA gives THE WOMEN: 4 blue stockings ;-)

random trivia: Mick Jagger's production company is behind the film. Who knew?

In honor of Rosalind, here's a great quote by her regarding her time at MGM:

"In all those types of films I wore a tan suit, a grey suit, a beige suit and then a negligee for the seventh reel near the end when I would admit to my best friend on the telephone that what I really wanted was to become a little housewife."