Movies for women, not 'chick flicks'

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood

(Herald Rating * * * )

Monsoon Wedding

(Herald Rating * * * * )

You could call both of these movies "chick flicks". Well, you could. If anyone thinks I'm going to be stupid enough to fall into that one.

Each represents a major movie tradition. Divine Sisters celebrates Hollywood film-making and marketing opportunities. Directed by a woman and featuring a string of big-time actresses, every line and scene is honed for a target audience of middle-aged women.

Middle-aged American women who consider the source material, two slight novels of female bonding, to be a text for life.
Monsoon Wedding is another gem from Indian director Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!, Mississippi Masala, Kama Sutra), a witty, wry, acutely observed portrait of family life that could take place anywhere in the world.

Divine Sisters opens with about-to-be-famous New York playwright Siddalee Walker (Sandra Bullock) talking to Time magazine about her unhappy childhood and her relationship with a predictably handsome Irishman, Connor (Angus Macfadyen).

Siddalee's mother, Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), a cardboard cutout of a faded Louisiana belle with a drink problem, disowns her, and not for the first time.

As he has throughout their marriage, Vivi's husband, Shep (a marvellous turn from James Garner), shuts his feelings down. But her childhood friends — Caro (Maggie Smith), Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan) and Necie (Shirley Knight) — head for Broadway to tell Siddalee the sad truth about her mother's early life.

Frustrated with her attitude, they kidnap Siddalee and fly her back to Louisiana. There, Caro, Teensy and Necie reminisce about their childhood in the 30s, their gang, the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and the 60s, as Vivi (now Ashley Judd) raises her family and tries to keep sane. (I point out these dates because the movie is not too concerned with historical details or real events, and fashions tend to be moved around to make a better screenplay.)

Few will be surprised to hear that long before the rather tame secret of Vivi's past is revealed, we are headed for a happy and tearful ending.
The DVD release is packaged with two commentaries, an interactive scrapbook and the classic soundtrack.
Most interesting are 20-plus minutes of deleted scenes which flesh out the character of Vivi and explain why her adolescence was a mess, something which viewers of the original movie must still be scratching their heads over.

So, three stars because I recognise it will touch many of its intended audience and because it is only the major movie that I can recall which uses the eccentric and overlooked English folkie Richard Thompson at a pivotal moment on the soundtrack.

Monsoon Wedding is set in contemporary Delhi as Aditi, only daughter of Lalit and Pimmi Verma, a well-off Punjabi family, prepares for her arranged marriage with Hermant, a computer engineer from Houston.
At the same time Aditi is having an affair with her married boss, host of a television talkshow called Delhi.com, who won't leave his wife.

Like many Indian families, relatives are scattered around the world. They and their parents are torn between their traditional culture and the modern world.

It is in little incidents and cameos (like the loser wedding planner who falls for a beautiful servant) that Nair's genius for observation is displayed. Here, too, there is a family secret, this time involving the rich old uncle on whom many of the family rely.

The DVD has only a couple of special features after the 114-min movie: an eight-minute making-of and a commentary by Nair.