The First Wives Club (1996)

The First Wives Club is such a wonderful movie with a wonderful cast including the storyline. It has love, heartache, tons of laughter and revenge!!!! Shot beautifully!!!

Fmovies: To understand where the film is coming from all you have to do is note that it features cameo guest appearances by both Ivana Trump and Gloria Steinem. The former, of course, is known for having gained all her wealth, power and fame from exploiting the wealth, power and fame of her husband/ex-husband and the latter is noted for gaining all her wealth, power and fame from her male-bashing bigotry. The film embraces both of these icons with equal self-righteousness.

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB film expects us to accept the notion that divorce in America is decidedly pro-male, designed to cheat women. This, it seems, is especially true if the women are white, well-educated, upper-class and socially prominent. While most people would be hard pressed to see such women as society's victims, the film takes it for granted that they are and expects us to never question that notion. If you don't, you will likely enjoy the film greatly. If you have even one working brain cell in your head, you should be rightly amazed at the gall the filmmakers have to so blatantly insult your intelligence.

The film deals with three former college chums, now middle-aged wives, who, coincidentally, are facing divorce all at the same time. The three are Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler -- three absolutely wonderful actresses. Because the system is so anti-female, the three have to resort to blackmail, kidnapping, extortion and racketeering in order to wrestle the family wealth out of the hands of their dimwitted husbands. It is notable that in the cases of Keaton and Midler's characters, they claim to deserve their husbands' money because they helped and supported them early in their careers. Meanwhile, in Hawn's case, her husband worked as her business manager and helped her become a leading film star, but she claims that she is the bread winner in the family and therefore he is entitled to nothing. The film is so dull-witted that it presents these conflicting plotlines and is totally oblivious to their obvious irony. The film's logic is clear: What's his is hers; what's hers is hers and what's theirs is hers.

Battle of the sexes comedies can be great fun, but only if both sides are evenly matched and equally clever -- think Kate and Spencer, Doris and Rock, or even Lucy and Desi. This lame film tries to stack the deck by pandering to feminist stereotypes: Women are better, but victimized; men are evil, but stupid. The irony is that by the end of the film the men are the sympathetic victims and the three leading actresses come off as smug monsters (thus the tacked on ending wherein they donate their ill-gotten loot to open a shelter for abused women -- apparently you can buy off guilt).

The really sad thing about this sorrowful little mess of a movie is that it wastes the talents of the three terrific leading ladies. They are victimized, not in the movie, but by the movie.

The First Wives Club is definitely one of the movies for me that works so well because I love all the leads. They all are funny women who know how to work the script because they have done it a million times over. This movie is just great fun from beginning to end in that it is one big drama after another that just seems exaggerated, but again that's what makes the film. Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler are simply wonderful as usual. They throw their lines around and pop their jokes like they are pros at this kind of thing and it shows. Now it is why only the cast make this movie so well that it fails at other times, being pretentious and completely unaccommodating, but if you give it the chance The First Wives Club might surprise you on how well it manages to be a very warming and fun watch for anyone who knows how to handle it. The end sequence is my favorite.

The First Wives Club fmovies. I really like this film. Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Stockard Channing have been friends for years and all have something in common - cheating, flaky husbands. So far, so cliché.

But the 'First Wives Club' is an inspired bit of fluff, fun, perceptive, and full of high spirits. These forty-something ladies replaced by younger models aren't going to take their fate lying down, and what a hoot it is watching them set up their outfit to take fickle men to the cleaners.

OK, the film is a little sexist, with a one-dimensional view of both men and women; but it succeeds as entertainment. Some of the supporting caricatures are simply hideous, but work well. You can also spot stars of the future such as Sarah Jessica Parker in smaller roles.

If you take this film for what it is, you'll probably enjoy it. It's one of those films that you'll either love or hate - but with this calibre of cast it's worth a look.

I came into this film with fairly low expectations as I wasn't sure that it would be my sort of thing. However, I must admit that I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

The premise is rather simple and focuses on 3 old college friends who end up re-united due to the death of their old college friend Cynthia (Stockard Channing). The 3 college friends are Elise Elliot (Goldie Hawn), Brenda Cushman (Bette Midler) and Annie Paradis (Diane Keaton). Whilst, the circumstances surrounding their reunion are unfortunate, the 3 women use this opportunity to catch up. Whilst, it is clear that they have lived rather different lives since they left college, they find that they all have one thing in common; their husband's have left them for/cheated on them with young women. With the 3 protagonists feeling disgruntled about the way they've been treated, they decide to set up the First Wives Club and take revenge on their cheating husbands;

Whilst, the film is rather slow to get moving, I did find that this to be an enjoyable film. This film was a lot of fun with plenty of laughs. The 3 protagonists characters were all well developed and some of the schemes they come up with to get their own back on their respective partners were rather clever. I felt that Goldie Hawn gave the stand out performance, but that's not to discredit Midler and Keaton who were also fantastic.

What really impressed me about the First Wives Club was the ending (which I won't give away), but let's just say that there was slightly more to it than meets the eye.

All in all, this was a fun ride with plenty of laughs. The plot summary will suggest that it is geared more towards women and if I'm honest I think that more women will enjoy this than men. Having said that I'm a man and I still enjoyed it. Give it a try!

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB is a sparkling all-star comedy that hits all the right notes and makes you want to cheer out loud while you're watching. This is the story of three former college girlfriends (Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler) who are reunited after many years due to the suicide of a mutual friend (Stockard Channing) and all learn that they have been dumped by their husbands for younger women. They bond and not only plan revenge on their husbands but take their revenge to another unexpected level that is curiously refreshing for a comedy of this type. Keaton, Hawn, and Midler are marvelous as the women out for their ex-husbands'blood. Stephen Collins, Victor Garber, and Dan Hedaya are all on the mark as the scummy ex-husbands. There are funny bits contributed along the way by Rob Reiner as Hawn's plastic surgeon, Sarah Jessica Parker as Hedaya's mistress, Maggie Smith as a wealthy divorcée, Bronson Pinchot as a faux designer, Eileen Heckart as Keaton's mother, and Marcia Gay Harden as Collins'therapist/mistress. A wonderful script is smartly mounted by director Hugh Wilson with an energetic cast to produce a terrific film comedy which can easily be watched several times and discover new pleasures on each viewing.