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The First Wives Club is not a great film, but it is a great piece of cinematic junk food. There’s nothing wrong with something a little too fatty or too sugary for you every so often. The First Wives Club has numerous actors and actresses that I admire involved, all of whom seem to be having a good time, and it is hard to begrudge them a little fun. Among the three major stars they have earned two Academy Awards out of eight nominations, not to mention the Emmy, Grammy and Tony awards they have either been nominated for or won. Why not just sit back and enjoy them being silly for an hour and a half?
The film throws together enough of a loose plot to string together a madcap, zany might be the better word for it, series of adventures for our three heroines to engage in. With each wife being left for a younger model by their dubious husbands, there is some fertile ground for comedy to be plowed. And plow it they do, taking hilariously bitter jabs at plastic surgery, ageism, sexism and the first wife syndrome. (A series of jokes about a daughter’s lesbianism strike an ugly chord. Being gay shouldn’t be a punchline used against your father, even if he did leave your mother for the psychiatrist.)
But Keaton, Midler, and especially Hawn, bite into their roles with relish. Each actress is allowed to poke fun at their public or filmic images. Keaton gets to play a variation on Annie Hall, just try to imagine what would happen if that character got married, had a kid and relocated to the suburbs. Now imagine that character in couple’s counseling and being left for the therapist. Midler gets to do her outsized, brash persona in the form of a Queens housewife. It works, and she even gets to sing and dance for a spell. But the best of the three is Hawn as a boozing, plastic surgery addicted former Academy Award winner whose career has spiraled downward into making schlocky sex obsessed “Skinemax” films. Her statement that Hollywood has three parts for women is incredibly apt. (For the record they include: babe, district attorney, Driving Miss Daisy.)
Could a better movie have been made out of this subject matter? Oh yes, and especially given the cast a great one could have resulted. A modern day The Women in a sense, but instead we have a movie that is great for Saturday afternoon entertainment. Say, you’re stuck at home on a Saturday afternoon and you feel like watching something fluffy, entertaining and harmless. The First Wives Club is perfect for that.
