the women again!

After humouring my brother by watching the new Hulk movie with him and my family on his projector downstairs, and actually enjoying it - which was surprising, my mom and sis watched the 1939 version of "the women" with me upstairs.

At first I was disappointed with it, because everyone talked so fast you either couldn't understand what they were saying, or it felt like the characters didn't mean what they said very much. I was greatly surprised at the scene between Mary Haines and her mother, where Mary seemed like she wanted to end the marriage right away, whereas in the play, she was mortified at the idea from the start. I liked the play's version much better.

Also surprising was how much smaller of a part there was for the beloved writer Nancy Blake. She had probably four short lines in the whole of the movie. The actress that played her wasn't given a chance to say anything and we barely got a chance to know her at all, so it's very hard to compare her performance to Ms. Naughton's. In the play, there were at least 3 or 4 scenes where we got to see quite a bit of her character.

The lady who played Mary and the girl who played her daughter looked almost identical to the actresses in the play. It was uncanny. The acting of the little girl was so similar, that it could have been the same performance.

However, after the scene with her mother, I thought the movie did extremely well. I loved their rendition of my favorite scene between Miriam and Mary in the second half. I also liked the scene in the dressing rooms much better in the movie, although there were a few lines missing. Both the movie and the play were quite excellently performed, and it was fun to see it outside the constraints of the stage. But I am very happy that I saw the play first.

What enjoyment!
Jp