The Women (2008) -vs- Sex And The City (2008)

Women with Shoes

The Smackdown. After fifteen years in development, TV comedy queen Diane English ("Murphy Brown") has finally completed her Magnum Opus: a star-spangled remake of 1939’s "The Women."  Sixty-nine years after that classic film’s original release, the remake of "The Women" follows in the high-heeled footsteps and huge box office wake of this summer’s earlier "Sex And The City."  The two movies are remarkably similar, sharing an unapologetic chickflick sensibility and Ladies Only appeal. 

Both films claim to reflect a kind of reality and instead mirror an uppercrust New York City where money is never an issue, a New York City where walking a mile even in your own shoes is unthinkable.  Shoes aren’t for walking; they’re for collecting, and they render their owners hobbled Geisha girls suited only to taking tiny baby steps on pristine boulevards, linking arms for balance, in search of more shoes and more men.  Freud suggests that shoes are a symbol for female genitalia.  Movies suggest they are no longer symbolic at all, but replacements.

So it’s a catfight to the finish.  Or wait.  Could "The Women" be just a pale imitation of an imitation arriving a little too late to cash in to the zeitgeist?  Timing (and those shoes) are everything.

The Challenger.  Everyone in "The Women" goes to Saks! Everyone in the movie is a woman! Society woman Mary Haines discovers her husband is having an illicit affair. Her group of friends stick their noses in her business. Somebody has a baby. Nobody worries about money. They live in New York City and Connecticut, but most of the people are white and rich. We learn early on that several characters are very witty, but we never actually hear anything that convinces us of this. They change clothes a lot.