User reviews

I came into this film with fairly low expectations as I wasn't sure that it would be my sort of thing. However, I must admit that I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

The premise is rather simple and focuses on 3 old college friends who end up re-united due to the death of their old college friend Cynthia (Stockard Channing). The 3 college friends are Elise Elliot (Goldie Hawn), Brenda Cushman (Bette Midler) and Annie Paradis (Diane Keaton). Whilst, the circumstances surrounding their reunion are unfortunate, the 3 women use this opportunity to catch up. Whilst, it is clear that they have lived rather different lives since they left college, they find that they all have one thing in common; their husband's have left them for/cheated on them with young women. With the 3 protagonists feeling disgruntled about the way they've been treated, they decide to set up the First Wives Club and take revenge on their cheating husbands;

Whilst, the film is rather slow to get moving, I did find that this to be an enjoyable film. This film was a lot of fun with plenty of laughs. The 3 protagonists characters were all well developed and some of the schemes they come up with to get their own back on their respective partners were rather clever. I felt that Goldie Hawn gave the stand out performance, but that's not to discredit Midler and Keaton who were also fantastic.

What really impressed me about the First Wives Club was the ending (which I won't give away), but let's just say that there was slightly more to it than meets the eye.

All in all, this was a fun ride with plenty of laughs. The plot summary will suggest that it is geared more towards women and if I'm honest I think that more women will enjoy this than men. Having said that I'm a man and I still enjoyed it. Give it a try!

The short cameo appearance of Stockard Channing as she takes leave of this life after being dumped by her husband for a younger model galvanizes three of her friends Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton to take some action other than sit on their alimony which can be a sometimes thing.

Belaboring the obvious what they all have in common is that they were all first wives, veterans of marriage who get dumped by their husbands going into midlife crisis. The First Wives Club is open to any women who feel they've been put through the ringer in their divorces, don't just get mad, get more than even.

Goldie Hawn is an aging actress who goes through all kinds of makeup and plastic surgery just to stay young. Graduate to character roles Goldie, better than you did that. Diane Keaton is this sunny optimist whose world was her marriage and she still tries to maintain her sunny outlook on life. Midler is the most bitter of all as her family money and connections help start Dan Hedaya's successful furniture business.

It's Hedaya who suffers the most, but he's also the most likely in the end to realize what a jerk he's been. Of all the supporting roles I liked Philip Bosco best as Midler's Uncle Carmine. It irks him how his niece has been disgraced for as he puts it, he started his business with a lot of merchandise that fell off the back of a truck.

Goldie Hawn's best scene is with her cosmetic surgeon Rob Reiner who tells her she's over the legal limit for botox. Hawn is beginning to sound like Gloria Swanson on being an aging actress, but no way is she ready for any closeup believe it or not Mr. DeMille.

In fact her ex who is a producer has the chutzpah to want Hawn to play mother in his next picture opposite Elizabeth Berkley the teenage bimbo he wants to go back to his teen years with.

Maggie Smith who is a marriage veteran herself who keeps herself nicely from alimony is friend to these women. Watch some of her work with the world's worst interior decorator Bronson Pinchot.

In the end the women get into a worthwhile endeavor and do realize revenge is sweet but there's more to life than getting even.

The First Wives Club is built nicely on the foundation of the good chemistry developed between the three first wives. And they get good ensemble support as well. A nice comedy from the 90s.

If you watch "The First Wives Club" because you need a good laugh, perhaps you should try another film. Yes, it clearly has some funny moments but it also is filled with dark ones--and a message you wouldn't expect to find in a simple comedy. You KNOW it's going to be a dark film at the beginning, as a lady whose husband has left her takes her own life. This horrible event brings some of her old friends to the funeral--and there they compare notes and see that they, too, were used and cast aside by their husbands--husbands who have no replaced them with trophy wives. So, the three friends (Bette Midler, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn) concoct a plan--a plan that involves fleecing their unfaithful ex-husbands and creating a club for wives going through the same sort of situations they have.

As I said, there are some dark moments and some funny ones. But the film never falls to the level of slapstick or becomes mostly comedy--but a mix. Some may not like this and the film is a bit heavy-handed at times, but the overall film is well worth seeing and has a decent feminist message. Worth seeing.

This is a silly movie with plenty of entertaining comedy. Any male-bashing in it is clearly intended in good fun, even if it's dead serious for the characters. I found absolutely nothing offensive about this film, recognizing it for the light-hearted fun it is. A lot of men ARE scum. This just isn't the sort of comedy where generalizations and stereotypes are dangerous and offensive. In contrast, I was rather frustrated by Waiting to Exhale, because I felt it was too serious in its male-bashing. The women in First Wives Club seemed clever and delightfully devious, whereas the women in Waiting to Exhale seemed to prefer to sit around discussing how evil men are and plotting bits of petty revenge that showed how superior they are, not to mention setting fire to their husbands' property. First Wives Club takes a more constructive and intelligent approach to the problem and does so with much hilarity. I don't see how anyone can be offended by something as fun as this. I also find a comparison to Birth of a Nation to be very stretched, particularly since the attitudes in First Wives Club are not as dangerous, and, as I have reiterated several times, they are not intended to be serious. Overall, I would rate this film at least a seven.

Not that i'm generalizing here, but I think this movie is great if you have been wronged by a man in any way similar to these women. It may contain a bit of man-bashing, it may generalize middle-aged men as skirt-chasing losers, but there ARE men like that out there, and if you don't take it too seriously it really isn't a problem. This movie is kinda like a middle-aged chick flick, where anything is possible and revenge is exacted perfectly. Personally, I watch this when i'm feeling a bit bitter, because even if the storyline isn't that deep and meaningful, there's some good comedy in it. I haven't read the book that the movie was based on, so i can't judge in that respect, but i really enjoyed this film.

It's a good movie if you are looking for a few hours of laughs. The film is brilliantly funny, especially in a second part.

This older film still holds up well after 20 + years. It has an edge to it that makes you laugh, but not all the jokes hit home every time. It is fun seeing the performers who went on to even greater acclaim later on, such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Victor Garber. And, of course, you can't miss with a powerful threesome like Goldie, Diane, and Bette. Two thumbs up for this one.

I can't quite put my finger on why I love this movie so much. It has everything, great story, brilliant performances, good songs, comedy etc.. it's just a great film and every so often I love to put it on and feel better.

The plot: 2 out of 10

the production: 4 out of 10

the direction: 6 out of 10

the cast: 8 out of 10

"You Don't Own Me" song and dance at the ending and credit roll: 10 out of 10.

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB (1996) is clean, lighthearted and conveying an message easily understood. A bit silly, yes, particularly the two characters by Maggie Smith and Sarah Jessica Parker. Husbands are all portrayed as sex hungry low-wit. Filled with stereotype and cliché, yet TFWC wins the hearts of million people.

The reason? Well, let me give you three words: Keaton, Hawn and Midler. They are the keys why audience watch this movie, they are the keys why audience LOVE this movie.

To understand where the film is coming from all you have to do is note that it features cameo guest appearances by both Ivana Trump and Gloria Steinem. The former, of course, is known for having gained all her wealth, power and fame from exploiting the wealth, power and fame of her husband/ex-husband and the latter is noted for gaining all her wealth, power and fame from her male-bashing bigotry. The film embraces both of these icons with equal self-righteousness.

THE FIRST WIVES CLUB film expects us to accept the notion that divorce in America is decidedly pro-male, designed to cheat women. This, it seems, is especially true if the women are white, well-educated, upper-class and socially prominent. While most people would be hard pressed to see such women as society's victims, the film takes it for granted that they are and expects us to never question that notion. If you don't, you will likely enjoy the film greatly. If you have even one working brain cell in your head, you should be rightly amazed at the gall the filmmakers have to so blatantly insult your intelligence.

The film deals with three former college chums, now middle-aged wives, who, coincidentally, are facing divorce all at the same time. The three are Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler -- three absolutely wonderful actresses. Because the system is so anti-female, the three have to resort to blackmail, kidnapping, extortion and racketeering in order to wrestle the family wealth out of the hands of their dimwitted husbands. It is notable that in the cases of Keaton and Midler's characters, they claim to deserve their husbands' money because they helped and supported them early in their careers. Meanwhile, in Hawn's case, her husband worked as her business manager and helped her become a leading film star, but she claims that she is the bread winner in the family and therefore he is entitled to nothing. The film is so dull-witted that it presents these conflicting plotlines and is totally oblivious to their obvious irony. The film's logic is clear: What's his is hers; what's hers is hers and what's theirs is hers.

Battle of the sexes comedies can be great fun, but only if both sides are evenly matched and equally clever -- think Kate and Spencer, Doris and Rock, or even Lucy and Desi. This lame film tries to stack the deck by pandering to feminist stereotypes: Women are better, but victimized; men are evil, but stupid. The irony is that by the end of the film the men are the sympathetic victims and the three leading actresses come off as smug monsters (thus the tacked on ending wherein they donate their ill-gotten loot to open a shelter for abused women -- apparently you can buy off guilt).

The really sad thing about this sorrowful little mess of a movie is that it wastes the talents of the three terrific leading ladies. They are victimized, not in the movie, but by the movie.

"First Wives Club" is an example of excellent movie making. The pacing, the continuity, the look of the scenes and the characterizations are all very funny and charming and entertaining. For a big budget holiday movie made to make money, it does its job and does it very well. Midler is especially excellent. So is Dan Hedaya as her ex and Dame Maggie Smith as a friend indeed. I think that the major reason that the movie is unappreciated by too many critics is because it's a "woman's picture." It's designed to be a very light comedy that brings in women and their families to generate box office. Whatever its genre, however, the movie works in every way it's intended to work. The sets are great, the costumes are perfect and the acting is really funny and also touching when it needs to be, such as when Sarah Jessica Parker says to Bette Midler, "Brenda, this outfit might look really good on you... why don't you try one on in YOUR SIZE!" Midler's fury suddenly deflates, and she exhibits pathos. Lots of funny lines and facial expressions and over-the-top emotion, and the directing was, I think, very precise and well done.

A goofy comedy designed as a star vehicle for its three leading ladies, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler.

Is it a good movie? Not really. But does that matter? Not really. It mostly succeeds based on the sheer talent of the three actresses involved, who could probably make a movie about the invention of barbed wire funny if they had to.

I don't know that this movie presents a very flattering image of middle-aged women, but since middle-aged women seem to be the ones who most love this film, if they don't mind, why should I?

Grade: B

OK, I know this is a chick flick and I am anatomically incorrect. Still, I had high hopes for First Wives Club until about half way through. It looked like it was headed towards over-the-top farce like The Jerk or Adventures In Babysitting. Then it detoured and tried to be "important". Very few films can succeed at both. Willing suspense of disbelief works in a farce, but "important" movies need a coherent plot. The plot and the comedy both die midway, leaving us to wait for a painfully trite conclusion.

At least that's the way this non-chick saw it.

Like Nine to Five, First Wives Club purports to be making a statement - albeit in comedy mode - about a serious feminist issue, but like that movie is simply an opportunity to portray women getting back at men who have taken advantage of them - and why not?! While the film may have little practical application to the majority of women who are "traded in" for newer models, but whose men are not as well heeled as the husbands in this film, it does provide them with 100 minutes of escapist entertainment from three great American actresses - OK Bette Midler may not be the best actress in the world but she's certainly hugely entertaining.

Midler plays one of three 60s college friends, who meet 25 years later and find that they've each been deserted - her businessman ex-hubby keeps her short of cash while buying skimpy designer dresses for his skimpy girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker). The other two in the triumvirate are Diane Keaton as a diffident door-mat, and Goldie Hawn as an alcoholic and facelifted filmstar. But this is one movie where there is no doubt about the characters undergoing an "arc" during its course, and hardly anyone emerges unaltered. Along the way, there are lots of laughs, a few tears, and an unforgettable rendition of You Don't Own Me. Elsewhere on IMDb, some ungenerous souls have used the word hysterical to describe this movie; hysterically funny is nearer the mark.

This film was better the second time I watched it. It wasn't the movie that it was hyped to be but when you accept it for what it really is, a dark comedy, it is truely wonderful! Casting was superb all the way around with this film. Bette Midler was excellent as Brenda Morelli Cushman. I found myself forgetting that she really was Bette Midler. That is acting! Eleen Heckart turned a wonderful performance as Catherine MacDuggan. Rob Reiner had a memorable line about collagen as Dr. Morris Packman. Jennifer Dundas does a superb job as Diane Keaton's tough, rebellious(against Daddy) daughter Chris Parallis. Expect the unexpected and enjoy this for the intelligent dark comedy that it is.

Elise Eliot Atchinson, Goldie Hawn (Everyone Says I Love You, Death Becomes Her) plays a famous aging movie-star who will do anything to stay young. Even her plastic surgeon, Rob Reiner, (When Harry Met Sally, Mixed Nuts) does not want to operate her any longer. Bette Midler (Beaches) is Brenda Morelli Cushman, a housewife who helped with her ex-husband's business. Diane Keaton, (Baby Boom, Godfather) Annie MacDuggan Paradis was doing therapy with her husband to solve her marriage problems. The three divorcees seek revenge on their husbands who left them for younger models. The death of a college friend brings then together and they start the First Wives Club whose goal is to destroy their ex-husbands.I just wonder what they wrote as their purpose to get a business license Revenge!!! The story is fun. Goldie as usual is as cute as it gets. I just wonder who I would pay attention to if she ever decide to make a movie with Meg Ryan (You've Got Mail). Two of the cutest Americas stars those days!

Favorite scene: Falling down the window cleaning platform.

Favorite Lines: "It's the nineties. Bill, downsize!"; "Fifty cents considering our history together, I thought one dollar would be terribly fair. Take it all!;" "Lifestyle that I think you should become accustomed to."; "Revenge didn't seem so important anymore."

I am offended by the other reviewers' comments implying or stating as a fact that this is the film that _all_ women will love. As a woman, I can say it's a generous overstatement.

A film with much noise and screaming, cheesy dialogs, and shallow gossipy characters can't please everyone, and The First Wives Club certainly didn't please me.

I'm happy that not all women are like the characters in this film. Otherwise, I would have to consider a sex change operation.

Although many feel that the movie fell short I think they missed the point of the movie. The movie starts showing four very different women, and flashes back 25+ years ago when they were close collage friends. Their lives have taken them in four different directions and their lives are very different from each other. The movie isn't about making fun of men, divorce, fame or fortune. Its about women friends - not casual "how are you, nice to see you again" friends - the kind of friends who know the you way down deep inside, and don't let you get away with anything because they know you too well. These women interact in a way that men will never understand, but that most women will identify with.

In the end, this movie is great entertainment. Pure and simple. No great message to deliver - just relax and enjoy it, thats what its there for!

This is actually a pretty funny movie for the first half, with the principals all doing a good job with their usual schticks. The movie pretty much dies when the three comrades have a falling out; somehow this just seems to derail the comedy and from that point on it gets dumber, increasingly unconvincing, and worst of all, much less funny. It feels like the movie had a cute idea but didn't really know how to flesh it out. Not bad, really, but feels like an utter waste of time.

If you are a man-hating feminist who has read every word of Susan Brownmiller, Catherine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin and hung on every syllable of their writings as though they were incandescent truth, have I ever got a film for you! First of all, I did not go to see this movie about three women who plot revenge on their husbands for having committed the unspeakable crime of leaving them for younger women, or rent it. It happened to have been playing on a tour bus I was on, and try as I might, I could not ignore it. I have resolved on the basis of this movie never to ride another tour bus if any movies whose titles or content I do not know in advance are playing. I found this a thoroughly disagreeable film.

Looking at it, I found myself thinking of a review by the late Richard Grenier of the movie M*A*S*H. Writing in the October 1981 issue of Commentary, Mr. Grenier said: "...I have never watched an ostensible comedy with such stony grimness..., and this for the simple reason that I found it to be inspired by no humor..., but entirely by cruelty, malice and an inordinate craving to humiliate. It would have been like laughing at a dog running frantically in circles, driven mad by a tin can some boys had tied to his tail. And also being asked to admire the boys." As noted, the center of this film is the relationship between three women (Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton) whose husbands each leave them for younger women, which in the context of this film is the unpardonable sin. The heart of the film is their elaborate revenge plots, all of which seem wildly disproportionate - rather like setting an arson fire to a hobby shop that sells you a model airplane kit with parts missing. Continuing from Mr. Grenier: "What makes (the movie) even more repellent is that the torment our heroes inflict on their adversaries is administered so smugly, with an air of overweening sanctimony, as if anyone who stands in their way deserves what he gets." But enough. I have wasted too much time on this ridiculous film already. Let me close with one final Grenier quote, which applies perfectly here: "...every foot of (this film is) marked by...smug hooliganism.... Its most essential trait is the complacent assumption that if one is in the right...one can commit any brutality, any cruelty, any humiliation. If one is right, human dignity no longer applies."

Such a fun movie! Hawn, Midler, and Keaton shine as three jaded women who decide to get back at their ex husbands in the most boss way. The first wives club has laughs, drama, and heartfelt moments. The scene on the window washer is comedy gold. The storyline has a good pace and doesn't try to get too complicated.

Luckily I can keep this brief, as it seems many share my low regard for this moronic film and have stated the flaws quite eloquently. Yes, the film is very "anti-man" and if a similar film were made today reversing the roles with the same unapologetic glee there would be misogynistic outcries of rage. But the real problem is that it's simply not funny. Black comedy without humor is just plain bad.

A big fat Zero out of 10. I would have given it a 1 to be merciful, but if I see another film with people dancing and singing to oldies trying to capture the 20 year old zeitgeist of "The Big Chill"... well, enough said.