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She-Devil
A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.
Release : | 1989 |
Rating : | 5.7 |
Studio : | Orion Pictures, |
Crew : | Art Department Coordinator, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Meryl Streep Roseanne Barr Ed Begley Jr. Linda Hunt Sylvia Miles |
Genre : | Comedy |
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Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
A Brilliant Conflict
I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Believe it: She-Devil was my first introduction to Meryl Streep. And say what you will about this movie, I really liked her in this.She isn't just an artist. She is thee artist in Hollywood. From this viewing or many, MANY, more when I was a child, she appears to have taken this role very seriously. Much like when I watched Megan Mullally perform live as Karen Walker at a taping of Will & Grace. Both Karen, and Streep's Mary Fisher are silly roles, and yet they're treated professionally.I appreciate that. And the movie.Now, far from perfect – and I'm not even speaking of the terrible FX (SEE: the house blow up and how Roseanne Barr is nowhere near that,) it's a fun watch. It's fun that Barr's Ruth is not Barr's normal role, like in her – at the time, future – role on her hit TV show. I liked how she had a plan of revenge, or more accurately justice, and didn't have to stoop to lowbrow "humor" as Melissa McCarthy has to do today. In fact, I would back this Ruth over any of McCarthy's ladies I've seen on screen.I digress. Housewife Ruth's husband cheats on her with famed romance novelist, Mary and she devotes her time to tearing down the things that he states mean the most to him.That's it, for the premise, at least. There are a lot of funny moments, good secondary characters, and Maria Pitillo, who I recently reviewed in 1998's Godzilla, and oddly dropped off the Hollywood map 5 years ago. Anyways, I liked how it wasn't straight forward for Ruth. She grew as a person and had to continually improvise and adapt for her plan to work.And Streep's Mary, was a fun watch, especially when you can see she's not the dumb blonde she mostly portrays. Note: the glasses push-up.Sure, it's predictable and some scenes are pretty far-fetched, but it was fun when I was growing up with this as it is today. I liked the soundtrack, some of the lines and the relationships Ruth makes during her journey. And I definitely understand more of what they were saying now, than I did as a kid. Totally recommended.
On the video cassette copy there was a trailer for a movie ....It may have been British, the people in the movie were wearing the white wigs and riding horses, does anyone know what that movie was called? It is killing me that I don't know the name of this movie. In the preview I remember there was a lady in the bathtub and someone knocks it over and she falls out, i think its about cheating, I don't know someone help me ha ha ha. It was one of the previews on the video home system copy , She Devil came out in 1989 so what year would the previews have came out? Also I know this is rambling a little bit, but I have to have ten lines in order to post on here, I hope someone can help.
This movie takes some well-deserved licks. I'm sympathetic to the theme (and deriving comedy from it) but this is just a misfire. For starters in answer to the question everyone was asking when this came out.. No Meryl Streep cannot do comedy. I can't imagine she's ever told a joke.Part of her problem is that as a self-impressed diva, she can't bear to fit herself into the scale of a movie. She's too freaking needy for that. Her self-conscious technique continually takes you out of the world of her movies, and standing amidst the ruins, all that's left for dazed viewers is to fawn appreciatively over her "ability." Apparently this trick got old for her too, and in an effort to develop some range, she began to choose absurdly inappropriate material that only further proved she had no versatility; this, Death Becomes Her, The River Wild. Can she do comedy? No, but she can't do adventure either.On the Actors studio when James Lipton asked what her least favorite word was, Streep sneered "edgy!" Perhaps this is because in her whole career she has only mastered "earnest." She couldn't do edgy if she was holding Lee Strasberg at gunpoint. She's too cerebral. She botches everything but drama.In an effort to say something nice about her, she was good in both Fred Schepisi films twenty years ago; Plenty and A Cry in the Dark.
Meryl Streep as an actress is in a league of all time greats and a legend in her lifetime. In She Devil (and this is a must watch movie ) she has performed a role at odds with her persona with grace and panache.The fast aging author unhappy without a man in her life is played to perfection. The scene in which Meryl Streep is just getting out of bed and mistakes the dog licking her toes for the man in her life is exceptionally well played.She uses her fully clothed behind to communicate the frustration so exceedingly well it is a scene which stays firmly etched in the mind.It is great to see the movie breaking typecasts and stereotypes and unravels like a fairy tale the female version of David taking on Goliath.