Just another talky, man-hating downer

It started out at a low (sad) point and descended further from there. What was most fascinating was to see who the next Hollywood A or B-lister (or C- was been) showed up next in this movie.

I concur that the movie was mostly about the women, and probably directed toward the female audience ("talky" rather than shooty or car-chasey), but I did not see it as especially man-bashing, other than the male characters seemed kind of weak/meek, preternaturally tolerant.




I felt like I was being manipulated into watching acting performances designed to garner Oscar nominations. Maybe I'm too jaded/cynical, but I kept recognizing the particular button (which stock movie scene) which was being pressed. Like, here's the standard introduction to the intoxicated addict character, here's the climactic blowout fight scene, here's the mother daughter reconciliation scene, here's the indignant Erin Brockovich threatening to sue scene, here's the unlikable powerful matriarch discovering her only "friend" is the paid servant (i.e. Driving Miss Daisy, Crash) scene. Lot's of juicy, gossipy reveals that you're supposed to keep secret, but are dying to tell. I knew that those plates of catfish were going to get smashed as soon as that scene started.

There was no real redemption or on-screen resolution either. Everyone pretty much just went back to their crappy, dysfunctional lives. I did not feel enriched by the experience