Just Like a Woman

Monica (Walters) has her life turned a-tizz by the arrival of dashing city-slicker lodger Gerald (Pasdar), whose hunky eligibility only seems enhanced by fastidiously plucked eyebrows. For Gerald is happier as Geraldine; and Monica, too, soon discovers she prefers it that way. Tailored to the transatlantic Shirley Valentine market, the film soft-pedals shamelessly. Any sense of challenge is defused by the accent on the naughty-but-normal, and by a time-wasting 'Wall Street' subplot that allows Freeman to breeze through as a boardroom nasty, while Pasdar rides to the rescue in an embarrassing reprise of Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie turn. Pasdar's performance, and his suits, are straight out of a Burton's window. Walters busks it on her dependable big bright smile. And Monger stitches it all together into a slickly pedestrian TV (sic) movie.