In 1939, the much admired George Cukor directed an all- female cast of contract players that included Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, and Joan Fontaine in a film about female friendship and infidelity. Flash forward nearly sixty years. Teleplay writer Diane English is hard at work on Candice Bergen’s series, Murphy Brown. English was the David E. Kelley of her day, expressing liberal positions through her key character’s dialog. Perhaps it was her feminist leanings that inspired her to start a project that would yield a new screenplay draft every year for the next fourteen years. It would become 2008’s The Women, and when the project was finally green-lighted, English would take on the role of director for the first time.

The film has the conceit of all women onscreen. I’m not referring simply to the key players. There is never a man visible for the film’s entire 114-minute runtime, not a speaking part, not an extra, not a background performer. Estrogen rules. English assembled a very strong cast of capable players. Among them is a potpourri of female archetypes.

Meg Ryan plays Mary Haines, the sweet, trusting wife who undervalues herself. It’s her husband that strays, attracted to the sexual dynamo Crystal Allen (Eva Mendes), a perfume spritz-girl. Haines seemingly doesn’t have a chance. Allen is coldly manipulative, clearly a gold-digger, and unashamedly determined to steal another woman’s husband, even when confronted. Haines had put her own needs on hold, having dedicated her married life to supporting her career-oriented husband. She’s completely unprepared for his dalliance, but reacts appropriately, throwing him out of the house.

She’s supported by a very close-knit and loyal cadre of female friends. Annette Bening plays the sharp-tongued Sylvia Fowler; she has the best lines in the film. When she arrives at the Saks salon for a manicure, she hands her lapdog to the receptionist and asks that the dog be given a drink of water. Asked if it the water should be still or sparkling, Bening’s Fowler hesitates for a beat, a look in her eyes that can only mean that she’s just been queried by a cretin. Fowler explains that the dog drinks out of the toilet. Case closed.

Edie Cohen (Debra Messing) is the quintessential mom, seemingly pregnant more often than not. She’s nurturing and supportive, but tends to protect her friends as she would protect her children.

Jada Pinkett Smith is Alex Fisher, the lesbian member of the team. She can be assertive to the point of butch and almost seems to be a surrogate man-friend, there to exert aggressive influence when it’s appropriate.

You’ll also find a fine roster of supporting players. Bette Midler appears briefly as Leah Miller, a feisty and self-assured woman Haines meets at a retreat. She is a more effective counselor than the pros. Miller motivates Haines to do a little soul searching, exploring what she really wants, and suggests that she needs to be a little less selfless in her life. And you’ll encounter Candice Bergen as Haines’ mother Catherine Frazier, Cloris Leachman as the Haines maternal housekeeper Maggie, and Debi Mazar as the blabbermouth manicurist Tanya, each playing a small but important role in Haines’ saga.

I watched this film with my wife (it’s not uncommon for me to request a screener for a film she might enjoy; that helps me justify my investment in home theater). She shared my opinions that the film was entirely too melodramatic, exposing a family embarrassment, embellishing a support group that overreacts and becomes downright intrusive, and was unrealistic in the ways people normally handle betrayal.

Very supportive strong female friendships have been done before; Sex and the City is perhaps the most prominent example. These women aren’t as judgmental and self-involved, which was a relief, but yet, I wasn’t convinced that this was a realistically portrayal or reasonable expression of friendship strained by the pain of one of its members. It comes across as a bit of a soap opera. This is an outstanding ensemble cast that should have inspired a better outcome; I expected more from English.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 has been expanded slightly to fill the BD’s 1.78:1 high definition frame; the transfer was compressed with the VC- 1 video CODEC. I’m beginning to wonder if Warner is intentionally using the VC-1 CODEC at low bit rate to fit content on single-layered BDs to reduce costs and keep their BD prices down. Fox BDs may be more expensive, but they are almost always dual-layer with transfers compressed with the AVC CODEC at a high bit rate and the images benefit as a result. This BD is a little soft, as if to flatter the complexions of the actresses. The transfer print is pristine, but the finely grained textures and small object details are not conveyed well. Black levels aren’t as deep as they should be, but that’s not a distraction. Chroma doesn’t seem to take advantage to BD’s extended range; the color rendition is a tad desaturated. Skin tones are reasonable, but a bit on the pale side. I thought I saw the occasional edge halo, but they were so inconsistent and infrequent that I can’t be sure if the video was low-pass filtered for the compression and then processed to increase apparent sharpness.

The DVD is clearly even softer, but is further compromised with the presence of unattractive edge halos. The second side of the double- sided DVD holds a full screen pan & scan version of the film and the same anamorphic video supplements as the widescreen side.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

This is another instance of Waner’ not providing a lossless track with superior fidelity. The single choice of audio track is Dolby Digital 5.1. Admittedly, this is a dialog-driven film that doesn’t require a spectacular sound track full of surround effects and an impressive dynamic range that includes a chest pounding bottom end. But, it would have been nice to have had a lossless track that enhanced dialog and score and made the presentation more audibly transparent. All we have is a DVD-quality track that is neither impressive nor outstanding. The surrounds are underutilized and are silent for most of the film. You can expect the score to enjoy an enhanced soundstage with leaks into the rear channels, but that’s about it. There is no bottom end, except for the score, but it’s not missed. The dialog remains distortion-free throughout.

The DVD has precisely the same audio track.

English SDH is the only subtitle choice on the BD, but in addition to that choice, there are also Spanish subtitles on the DVD.

The Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The Women, The Legacy featurette (18:46, 1.78:1, 1.85:1, and 1.33:1, HD) features director, producer, and screenwriter Diane English as she reveals the film’s background as both stage play and a 1939 film. She offers quite a few interesting tidbits concerning the ‘39 cast and talks about the very long history of the remake’s development and production. She takes us through her casting and each of the key players speaks out about the film and women’s relationships. The short is punctuated with scenes from both the original and the remake.

The Women Behind the Women featurette (18:43, 1.78:1, HD) is an odd twist to the usual making-of featurette. A 16-year-old “junior journalist” named Cammy Nelson was invited to the shoot to observe and interview cast and crew. Through her learning experiences, both related to the production and women’s issues, we also learn.

There are two additional scenes (6:25, non-anamorphic widescreen) that reveal some of the cultural aspects of Crystal Allen’s life and an extended sequence with Bette Midler at the retreat.

The DVD opens with a Blu-ray Disc promo and trailers for He’s Just Not That Into You and Nights in Rodanthe, and an anti cigarette PSA, none of which are in anamorphic video.

All the rest of the DVD’s supplements are identical to the BD’s, but are shown in SD rather than HD.

The 114-minute film is organized into twenty-nine chapters.

Final Thoughts

The Women is a soap opera with a splendid cast and a capable screenwriter who could have done better. The supplements are okay and the film does entertain to some extent, but doesn’t rate a buy recommendation. I was disappointed with the presentations, soft HD video (softer SD video on the DVD, contaminated with halos) and a bland audio track that was the same on the BD and the DVD.