In English's version, fidelity among friends is as important - perhaps more so - than that between spouses. So, instead of characterizing its central figure, Mary Haines (Ryan), as an innocent pup amid the attack canines, English takes the more optimistic view that even rabid middle-aged dogs can learn new tricks - like obedience to friends.
Nice message, if one with considerably less bite than the source material. English has taken Luce's insight that for women, friendship can be a lethal weapon, and blunted it in the warm bath of self-help.
And because Luce's account of how women behave in men-free zones prefigured Sex and the City, that effervescent TV and movie phenom also makes English's remix seem a tad flat. Maybe it's the watered-down, sitcommy direction (this marks the directorial debut of English, creator of Murphy Brown) that dilutes this cocktail's fizz.
The distinction between the upscale milieus of SATC and The Women may seem subtle. But in their niche universes, SATC is an edgy 35, drinks Mojitos, reads Vogue, and shops Bergdorfs; The Women is a centered 48, sips martinis, rips into O, and haunts Saks.
It is fair to say that Saks is to The Women what the Sistine Chapel is to The Agony and the Ecstasy - a sacred place for prayer, communion and confession.
At the salon of the Fifth Avenue fashion emporium, married Mary (Ryan, tossing her ringlets like a bowl of fusilli) learns from a chatty manicurist that her husband, Steven, is dallying with sultry Saks perfume spritzer Crystal (Eva Mendes).
Her friends, Sylvie (Bening), a magazine editor; Alex (Jada Pinkett Smith), a novelist; and Edie (Debra Messing), an earthy mama, already have heard the news.
