Classic Review: The First Wives Club (1996)

Some films become cult classics and we can’t really point out why. They are not landmarking of filmmaking, nor they have an unforgettable performance or another element that it in the must watch list. But even so, there’s something about them that just clicks and make them pop out and be remembered years to come.

The First Wives Club is one of these films; originally released in 1996, the film was an instant success, telling the story of three almost 50-year-old women who are all abandoned by their husbands for younger women. Elise (Hawn) is a Hollywood actress who’s past her prime and is trying her best to preserve her youth; her husband is a producer named Bill (Victor Garber), who’s of course a pig and is dating a young starlet named Phoebe (Elizabeth Berkley). Brenda (Midler) is a housewife who helped her husband Morty (Dan Hedaya) create an empire and was traded of for a stupid bimbo (Sarah Jessica Parker); and Annie (Keaton) is an executive who always put her career behind her husband Aaron (Stephen Collins) lives a completely submissive life. They reconnect after decades apart in the funeral of their fourth friend Cynthia (Stockard Channing) committed suicide after being left for a younger woman. Seeing the similarities in all their pain make them unite and promise to pay back all the suffering they are experiencing.

As a film, The First Wives Club is pretty by-the-book. They are in pain, they unite, they promise revenge, they go at it, they finally see the greater picture and learn from their mistakes. Nothing in the structure of the story is particularly groundbreaking, but that doesn’t mean it’s not exactly that in a lot of aspects. This is a film that deals, among other things, with 50-year-old women being dumped and finding new purpose in live , and most importantly, ending the story feeling totally secure of they are in the world, proud of their choices, their bodies, their lives. To have a film with one lead at that age would already be a risk, and one with three leads would probably seem like a recipe for disaster in the 90’s. when representation was still only being whispered. Not only does the film turn our expectations around, it also made a lot of money, another proof that people older than 15 also went to the theatre.

Meanwhile, the script doesn’t shy away from a lot of issues that exists in stories like these, such as alcoholism, co-dependency, the feeling of not being useful, how horrible it is to be so easily discarded, sexuality, looks and a lot more. It’s kind of a miracle that the script can assimilate so much and be actually cohesive. Probably the biggest catch here was the casting: the entire cast is extraordinary, an inspired collection of actors that bring a lot of personality to the film, from Garber to Channing (great in her one scene), Berkley, Hedaya, Marcia Gay Harden, Bronson Pinchot, Eileen Heckart, Philip Bosco, even the little parts are played by actors like Timothy Olyphant, J.K. Simmons and Heather Locklear. Sarah Jessica Parker and Maggie Smith especially are the ones to notice. Smith has just a few scenes, but her lines and her delivery are hilarious, and her reactions are just spot on; Parker has a more substantial role, and she kills it as the stupid blonde. The character has become a little cliché, yes, but she is still very funny in it.

But if there are any performances that need to be praised here, they are the ones delivered by the three first wives. Hawn stands out a bit more because her Elise is just hilarious all around, but she’s followed very close by Midler, who has great sarcastic quips as Brenda, and Keaton, with the more discreet character of Annie. But most importantly, all their performances complement each other’s, the three actresses bring their A-game here and they are a united front that turns the whole thing into a delicious ride. You cannot imagine replacing any of these three ladies , why would we even try that? Wilson manages to create a well-rounded film that always entices our curiosity to what’s happening next. Some scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, like when the three have to escape Morty’s new house, and even the emotional moments work well.

The First Wives Club may not be considered a perfect film, but it also seems it never intended to be so. What it wanted to be, apparently, was a highly entertaining film, and it accomplished just that with aplomb.

*still courtesy of Paramount Pictures*

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