Heaven hath no rage... Review on She-Devil Movie

Over the last few days, I was lucky enough to spend time with friends who have been in my life more years than I can count. As women will do when we get together, after we were done shopping and discussing children, and swapping tips on everything under the sun, we talked about men – those currently in our lives, those we wished were in our lives, and those we could have done very well without. Tales of love, trust, betrayal, sweet revenge, romance, hate and heartache peppered our conversation.

Then somebody said half-jokingly (I think) ‘Sometimes I wish I could do a “She-Devil” on my husband.’ After the somewhat nervous laughter had died down, everybody agreed that we had thought about it at one time or the other in the years we had been married.

The sisterhood decided to rent a DVD of “She-Devil,” so we chased the men (who were only too happy to go) away, and settled down armed with tubs of ice cream, mango-malai, and every other sinful goody we could think of, ready for some man bashing fun.

Here’s who is in the movie

Roseanne Barr, as Ruth Pachette, the frightfully plain and manic-obsessed housewife

Meryl Streep, as Mary Fisher, a cross between Shobaa De and Barbara Cartland style, vain and pretentious romance writer

Ed Begley Jr, as Bob, the accountant, whose charms, I for one definitely could not see

There are a host of other bit role characters, like Streep’s mother, and the butler, who truly make this farce come alive.

So what’s the movie about?

If there were a genre called ‘Bobbitizer,’ ‘She-devil’ would fit it perfectly. It is a revenge drama, giving form to a man’s worst nightmare and a scorned woman’s perfectly plotted revenge.

Ruth, a horrid looking woman who a complete homebody with hardly an independant thought in her head, devoted to her home and children, and is also so clingy she would give Velcro an inferiority complex. She is thrown over by her philandering husband for an ‘every man’s dream’ romance writer whose work she adores. This act which rips her life apart also sets fire to her till now dormant spirit, and she sets about to systematically (she even writes down a list – home, career, etc) destroy both man and mistress.

The fun starts with her burning down the house, and carries on through quite hilarious scenes where she drops off her children at her ex-husband’s lady love’s home, digs up enough scandal, including an abandoned old mother, in the lady love’s life, and strips away every little bit of mystery about her till the woman sits aghast amongst the ruins of her manicure and her so far perfect, picture book life.

The ex also falls readily into every trap, curvy and otherwise, that she sets, and ends up staring imprisonment in the face – Poetic justice given a boost by the rage of a woman scorned.

Ruth, who till the great upheaval in her life wouldn't say boo to a mouse, is transformed into an independant career woman, helping out her similarly single sisters.

This movie is not great cinema, it is pure entertainment with some great acting thrown in as a bonus.

Streep has a comic streak in her a mile wide, and it is a shame it is not exploited more often. There is some very funny acting by the supporting characters like Martinez the butler, Streep’s delightfully rowdy mother, and Begley’s hyperactive children.

Begley, however, is unconvincing, mostly because I couldn’t fathom what there was in the man to have two women so passionate about him.

Barr is well known as a comic star on TV, but over-plays her role here, so much so that you end up thinking she deserved to be dumped, and feel sorry for the ‘poor mistress.’

Who the movie is for

For every man who is cheating, or is thinking about it, for every woman and other woman, and anybody else who has a lazy afternoon on their hands and is in the mood for a couple of laughs.

At the end of it, as we put away the empty cartons, we came to this conclusion – She-Devil had two lessons

2 - For the men – let your eyes rest; love is not as far removed from war as you might think!