The First Wives Club

The First Wives Club is a movie I have watched too many times, yet gets better and better the more I watch it. (Seriously, though, I need to slow down on how often I watch it so I don't get sick of it.) The bright side to watching it so often is that I have had more and more time to admire the visual storytelling. What I have always appreciated about the movie is how it is both laugh out loud funny but also very sensitive to real life emotions and dark humor. What I have learned to really love is how much you learn about the characters and story through context clues.

Premise

The story revolves around three middle-aged women: Annie, Brenda, and Elise. Annie is timid and used to people telling her what she should do. Brenda struggles with overeating while trying to raise her teenage son. And Elise is a once-famous actress slipping into alcoholism. All three are left by their successful husbands, each choosing a significantly younger woman. Reconnecting for the first time since college after their friend Cynthia commits suicide after her own husband does the same thing, they come together to get revenge on the men who have wronged them by forming the First Wives Club.

Synopsis (SPOILERS - skip to cover picture)

The film is narrated by Annie. Cynthia, Annie, Brenda, and Elise were best friends in college, back when their whole lives were ahead of them, but more than 20 years later and they lead completely different lives throughout New York. Despite living in splendor, Cynthia is depressed and alone now that her husband has left her for a much, much younger woman and jumps to her death. For a while, the others go on not knowing about this. Annie is a timid woman with an overbearing mother, a strong-willed daughter who has just come out as a lesbian, and Aaron, the husband she is currently separated from. Brenda is divorced from her husband Mortie and raises her son Jason mostly alone while she struggles with overeating, working for a terrible interior decorator named Duarto Felise. Elise feels she is past her prime as an actress, hooked on silicone injections and constantly drinking and smoking. Only when they hear the news about Cynthia do they come together again and catch up a bit, each wearing the pearls Cynthia gave them as a friendship memento long ago.

Elise's husband Bill, big time movie producer, is divorcing her so he can live with Phoebe, a woman in her early 20's. Although Elise insists that she taught him everything he knows about movies, he and his lawyer demand alimony as well as the liquidation of their shared possessions. On top of all that, her confidence is destroyed when it is revealed that the movie she has been trying to get into will not feature her as the sexy lead, but as the old mother. At the same time, Brenda is dealing with the fact that her husband Mortie is very rich from his electronic stores and is buying his young girlfriend Shelley a penthouse while Brenda is always behind in the rent. Up until now, Annie had thought herself very lucky by comparison. She has been seeing Leslie, a therapist, to work on her self esteem while Aaron, a commercial advertising tycoon, works through his relationship anxieties. The one night Aaron takes her out for dinner as though ready to make up, brings her to his apartment to make love, then tells her he wants a full divorce. She is devastated after being so hopeful, and even more so when her young therapist Leslie walks in the door. Aaron claims he was totally upfront with Annie about his intentions for the night, which is the last straw. For the first time in her life, Annie screams about why she is angry, then leaves.

The three women get together again and decide to get revenge, forming the First Wives Club. What they need is dirt on their ex-husbands, so they begin recruiting the help of friends, including Annie's daughter, who volunteers to work part time at her father's ad agency so she can spy on him. Then Annie and Brenda start researching while Elise works on getting rid of her and Bill's possessions. Phoebe, a pretty and naive young woman, is surprisingly okay with the situation and is a big fan of Elise's work, enthusiastic about the possibility of her playing the sexy lead of the next movie while Elise plays her mother. The Club uses these items to furnish a building Elise owns to fashion an office for themselves where they plan which of Bill's possessions, largely gifts from Elise, to seize and sell. Meanwhile, Brenda and Annie attend Jason's bar mitzvah, after which they speak with her Uncle Carmine and learn that Mortie's first store was stocked with stolen goods from Brenda's family's business.

While brainstorming about how to get at Mortie's books, they realize that they can get into Shelly's new penthouse by having an influential socialite friend, Gwinilla Garson Goldberg, pretend Brenda's boss Duarto Felise is the best in town. Gwinilla agrees to the plan and invites Mortie's girlfriend Shelly over for lunch, where she gives her Duarto's businesscard. Shelly is not as smart or classy as she thinks she is, and falls for the scheme immediately. While Duarto kicks Mortie and Shelly out of the penthouse for a while so he can "be in the space," the three ladies sneak in to search the office. Brenda is heartbroken at the sight of all the beautiful things Mortie has bought another woman, but they find what they need. Unfortunately, Shelly and Mortie come back early, and the three of them are forced to escape via the window washing rig outside. That night they celebrate Cynthia's birthday, remembering the Leslie Gore song they performed for her once during college.

Next, Annie's daughters calls to say she has learned something major: Aaron's agency partners want to sell their portion of the business. Elise sells her all the art and furniture she has collected from Bill to Annie, and it is put up for auction. In the audience is Shelly with Duarto and Gwinilla by her side, prompting her to buy many items while Elise and Brenda sit in the audience boosting the price higher. Sadly, this event leads to Mortie getting mad at Shelly, who then manipulates him into proposing marriage, which hearts Brenda and Jason deeply.

It becomes clear that while Brenda has information about Mortie's criminal activity and Annie has plans to surprise Aaron, Elise has nothing on Bill. His records are clean! All at once, all the problems the group has been having come out in the open. Elise accuses the others of suffering less since they are not famous and do not have to pay alimony. Brenda points out that Elise is an alcoholic and has an altered perception of the world. They both taunt Annie for being a doormat, and Annie's temper flares and she says she is not mean like them, calling them both selfish assholes. Brenda slaps Annie for saying this, Elise slaps Brenda, and Brenda slaps Elise. Annie flees the scene, asking what has happened to them to be going at each other's throats. Brenda leaves after asking Elise how drunk she thought Cynthia was when she killed herself. At home, Annie laments the fall of their friendship and puts her pearls away. Brenda goes to the store and buys a bag of snacks just for herself, but not long after she gets home Elise shows up at the door, crying and saying she doesn't want to be like Cynthia.

The next day, Annie is clearing out some paperwork at the office when Brenda and Elise find her. It takes some convincing to get her to believe the Club is not a waste of time. Elise is sober and planning to do the play she had been too high and mighty to consider before. And they reveal that there may be something her husband Bill has done that he does not know about.

Operation Hell's Fury swings into action. All at once, the three women go to see their ex-husbands. Brenda and her uncle kidnap Mortie and take him to a meat locker to explain that they have documentation of all the stealing he did early on, telling him that Brenda will take charge of the company from behind the scenes. Annie goes to the ad agency to purchase Aaron's partners' shares of the business. Aaron says he will take all his accounts and walk, but Annie says the clients will probably stay after it comes out that she has landed the $45 million account with Mortie's Electronics. Elise goes to Bill, first showing him how much she sold their shared possessions for ($1) then pulling out Pheobe's high school yearbook, revealing that the young woman lied about her age and is really 16. Thoroughly blackmailed, all three ex-husbands come to the First Wives Club headquarters as instructed, where the grand plan is revealed to them: Annie, Brenda, and Elise plan to start a facility to help women and families through hard times so women like Cynthia will no longer be pushed to the edge by neglect. The ex-husbands will be required to pay for this venture.

What follows is a very happy time as Elise performs in the play, the three women take huge checks from their ex-husbands, and the renovate their office building, creating the Cynthia Swann Griffin Crisis Center for Women. On opening day they have the press there to interview them and a party in the evening. All three ex-husbands attend. Elise has started dating another actor while Bill is now single. Mortie is getting fed up with Shelly's youth and bad attitude, and realizes that Brenda is truly a wonderful partner he was stupid to throw away. None of this is said outright, but he sweeps Brenda into a dance while their son watches hopefully. And Aaron tells Annie he wants to get back together, but she tells him to drop dead. Even Annie's overbearing mother and strong-willed daughter are thoroughly impressed with her. Briefly we see that Bill has met Shelly outside and it becomes clear that she is ready to move on from Mortie as well. At the end, Annie, Brenda, and Elise look out over the mess left from the party, admiring their work. Thinking of Cynthia, they perform "You Don't Own Me" in the empty room like they once did for her birthday.

The Story

The premise of the film is a dark one: three women scorned by their longtime husbands, mourning the loss of an old friend taken by suicide. It takes a knowledgeable hand to know how much is too much when it comes to drama or humor. The film does a great job of going from raucous hilarity to real life sorrow. It seems to acknowledge that life can be funny and sad all at once.

The Characters

Before anything else, it helps to have great actresses to play good characters. Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, and Goldie Hahn are an amazing trio who really have great chemistry together, all of them comedic while still being great in dramatic moments. They are joined by a star-studded cast as well. The wonderful Maggie Smith is with them, along with others like Victor Garber and Sarah Jessica Parker. And any good script needs great characters to carry it. Everyone is written with snappy dialogue that doesn't feel forced or unbelievable, and the film does not avoid difficult subjects. Perhaps it does not discuss things like suicide, alcoholism, binge eating, self esteem, or loneliness in detail, but you feel through the experience the characters how much these things affect their lives.

The Background

All great movies have context clues hidden in the background, and The First Wives Club is full of them. All the characters live in unique homes that say something about their lives, and you can track unspoken happenings through changes in the background. I have two examples. The first is when Elise seizes her and her ex-husband's belongings and antiques to sell, as recommended by the lawyer, and uses them to furnish a club office. However, the office furnishings change once the items have been sold. Throughout this process you see many pieces of art or furniture many times in the background until they are sold, at which point their are replaced with cheaper versions. The second instance is about midway through the film when Annie's daughter calls to tell her that an opportunity has arisen. The scene is comprised of mostly still shots while characters leave each other voicemails. First we see the answering machine in Annie's house, then the machine at Brenda's apartment, and finally the machine in Elise's penthouse. There is a lot of time to examine the things each of them keep piled on the table where the answering machine sits, and you can see examples of things in their lives. The funniest example of this is a photo on Brenda's table of her and her son with a third ripped out, presumably where her ex-husband used to be in the picture.

Conclusion

The First Wives Club is a good movie because it reminds us that women in their forties are not at the end of their lives. They are capable of being smart, attractive, talented, hard working, fun, and determined. It also reminds us that revenge feels good, but does not solve the problem. Sometimes the greatest revenge is to make the original betrayal less hurtful or easier to recover from. And the ultimate lesson is that friends are important and must be taken care of.

Picture found on Google Images.