Film

The First Wives Club (1996)

Director: Hugh Wilson

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

It's 1969 and four young women, full of peace, love and ambition, are about to graduate. Cut to present-day New York, and the bleary spectacle of Cynthia (Channing), the gang's leading light, thrown over by her husband for pert-breasted wife number two. Lonely as hell, she takes a short walk off a tall building. At her funeral, superstar Elise (Hawn), mouthy frump Brenda (Midler) and doormat Annie (Keaton) realise they too are dizzyingly close to the edge; now saggy and a bit loose at the seams, they've been turned in for younger models. What to do? You've got it - revenge: they're going to kick those badfellas where it hurts - in the pocket. This comedy finds all three stars in wryly cartoonish form, with Keaton particularly charming/irritating. One-liners aside, however, there's no disguising the film's social smugness or predictability.

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