What was the last film you watched?

[Mel O'Drama]

She-Devil (1989)

This is a film I was aware of back when it was first released but actively avoided. I'd watched the 1986 TV series back when it was originally transmitted and thought it was great. I really had no wish to see a frothy, vacuous sanitised Hollywood interpretation of such a dark story. And yet, here I am.

How I ended up watching this weekend, I'm not quite sure. Since it's directed by Susan Seidelman, it's likely that it cropped up as a suggestion off the back of watching Desperately Seeking Susan and some similar films and I had one of my "oh... what the hell" moments.

It's probably over 35 years since I watched The Life And Loves Of A She-Devil series, but I do remember it being very serious, seedy and explicit. A conversation analysing the weirdness of people enjoying kissing when it's just sharing spit has never quite left my collective memory (I was pretty young when I watched it, and it's the kind of thing a schoolboy remembers). And I remember it being extremely creepy in places.

The poster for the film pretty much sums up the tone, and it's there from the very opening notes that we're going for something frivolous, slightly quirky and saccharine. It looks sumptuous and glossy. There's clearly a decent budget and it feels like the visual equivalent of a sweet treat (compared with the rich, carefully-planned four course meal that is the original).

Casting is fine. Meryl Streep is Meryl Streep. The comedic triangle elements, and Streep's character being a glamorous high profile husband-stealing celebrity feels rather like what we'd later get form her in Death Becomes Her. Given her range, it's a shame that it's treated as a broad comedy, and it's also intriguing to see that she'd originally been interested in playing Ruth.

Roseanne Barr's casting makes it quite clear what kind of Ruth we are given here. I can forgive this version not being "abnormally tall" as Ruth is meant to be, and I also appreciated Barr's lack of vanity. But with this being a very surface film and Barr's acting range appearing rather limited (at least from what I see here), there's very little to make this character fly. If I hadn't seen the original mini-series, I'm sure it would have been easier to accept (this goes for most elements of the film), but Julie T. Wallace's Ruth was so powerful and terrifying that I found myself sighing when hearing Barr's Ruth - in her trademark nasal twang - recite more or less the same narration as Wallace's, with amateurish "school play" overemphases in place of Wallace's unsettling menace. I find Roseanne quite likeable which kind of works for this version of Ruth, but is certainly quite a different experience from the original where my young self came away finding Ruth genuinely scary.

The soundtrack is... mostly forgettable. Most of the "original" tracks are very of their time, and the most memorable soundtrack moment is Elvis Presley's (You're The) Devil In Disguise played at the end. But there's nothing as bone-chillingly perfect as the BBC series' theme Warm Love Gone Cold.

^ Not that this song would have fitted the Hollywood version at all. I'm counting my blessings that the film didn't feature a dance cover of Christine Collister's haunting song in the style of the ill-advised I Will Survive cover that appeared.


With this being a fluffy "digest" version of the film, it's obvious that many details would end up omitted. With America being more conservative, the fetishist stuff, nudity and sex with priests and the like were probably never going to make it in, and I was OK with that.

The biggest surprise for me in this department, however, was the whole "becoming Mary Fisher" angle since, from what I remember, this is the entire point of the story... or at least the point to which all roads lead. As we got towards the end of the film, I wondered how on earth Ruth's surgeries and her gradual physical change to look like Mary would managed to be squeezed in, and I was quite shocked that there was not even a hint of this. Granted, I wasn't expecting all the visceral tooth drilling and bone sawing detail I vaguely remember from the series, but I was still curious to see Roseanne Barr becoming Meryl Streep and stealing her life completely. Without this, the project felt even more pointless and the story half told. Perhaps they were planning to save this part for She-Devil 2: Plastic Boogaloo.

Nitpicking aside, with low expectations this is an enjoyable, fun film that's easy to digest and probably has some rewatch value. Since the original material suggests it should be none of these things, this isn't necessarily a good thing. With American dominance of the market I feel sad that this is the version with which most of the world is now probably familiar (and hope, possibly in vain, that it at least leads some to check out the 1986 series).

Still, since the definitive authentic version had already been filmed, it's a relief this simply did its own silly, harmless thing rather than attempting to match the tone of the original. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.​

 

[Willie Oleson]

Still, since the definitive authentic version had already been filmed, it's a relief this simply did its own silly, harmless thing rather than attempting to match the tone of the origina

One particular scene that made me laugh out loud was the one in which Ruth and ...don't remember who, a friend?...were looking for a place...a workplace?
Anyway, at some point the woman who's showing them around says "whaddaythink, huh? huh? huh? huh?" It sounded so funny.

It would be nice to revisit the mini-series, if only for the 1980s nostalgia.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Baby Boom (1987)

Yet another well-known Eighties film that I was aware of but that completely passed me by. At least I think it did. I couldn't swear that I've never seen this, but then it's so comfortably predictable it's also the kind of film that one could probably practically play out in one's head without ever having seen it. This is especially true given other films of the era with similar tones and themes, such as Three Men And A Baby (Diane Keaton herself later starred in others that I associate with this kind of romanticised conservative genre of comedy with Father Of The Bride).

In many ways it's very of its time. Keaton's character - with her Armani suits, Oliver Peoples glasses and minimalist apartment - is the epitome of the Yuppie (the very point of the character, of course. By film's end she's learnt a valuable lesson).

It has a cutesy, boing-y synthesised Eighties score which tells you when to laugh or get tearful or whatever (saving the viewer the trouble of having to think too much about what's actually going on).

It's a warm film and quite a soppy one. I have a low tolerance for cutesy films, especially cutesy baby films, but I found myself investing in this one. The girl (or girls, since she was played by twins) is cute without being precocious and the film really sells J.C.'s journey with her (there's a scene at the adoption office which almost broke my stony heart).

I suppose the underlying message of the film is that you can have it all on your own terms... if you're creative and resourceful enough. The ending is upbeat and happy enough, but there's just something about it that could have been a bit more.

Spoiler: Plot spoilers

For the first half of the film, it really felt as though J.C. was on her way to achieving something significant. There's a terrific moment after she decides to keep the inherited baby where Harold Ramis's character announces he can't do it, and she calmly but simply says "OK" and then he's gone. I found it quite admirable that she (well she and he both, really) had sacrificed this in order to step up and be there for the child. After all, she still had her career. Then that, too, was gone and I wasn't sure how to feel about this because it leaned into the "all women are slaves to their maternal instincts" trope. She gave up what was most important to her life to be a mother, which seems retrogressive.

Then comes the baby food business she sets up, starting with the homemade apple sauce, and she's the capitalist again (so she can have it all on her own terms). But the unnecessary icing on the cake was the romance with the vet. So she has the money, the career and the man. And that's kind of the measure of her success. It ended up lazily ticking all the conservative boxes. And while it worked fine, I'd have found it a stronger film without the Hollywood ending.

I'm trying to think how many films I've watched with Diane Keaton, and the answer is "not enough". The First Wives Club; The Godfather films; the occasional more recent film has been streamed recently. To my shame I've never watched Annie Hall, and it has been in my watch list for a while. I do find her a charismatic actress. It's quite a feat to essentially look the same in everything and display many of the same quirky mannerisms, yet still be completely in the moment and somehow become that character completely. I'm fascinated by her features: the fixed smile; the sad "weary of life" eyes. And her timeless style, of course. Plus she seems to be ageing both relatively naturally and like fine wine.
​

One particular scene that made me laugh out loud was the one in which Ruth and ...don't remember who, a friend?...were looking for a place...a workplace?

Oh yes - that was when she was setting up her "Vesta Rose" agency with the old colleague from the nursing home.

at some point the woman who's showing them around says "whaddaythink, huh? huh? huh? huh?" It sounded so funny.

This reminded me to look up who played "whaddayathink" woman.

I don't recall her getting a close-up, and I remember thinking as I watched that she looked rather like Marilee Stone from Dallas (even though she didn't sound at all like her), so I wanted to see who it was.

Turns out it was June Gable, who went on to play Joey's agent Estelle from Friends.

It would be nice to revisit the mini-series, if only for the 1980s nostalgia.

Funnily enough, after watching the film, I took a peek to see if it was available on DVD.

Seems it's long out of print, but I'll certainly keep an eye out for either an affordable copy or for the series becoming available to stream. I'd be very interested to see how it's aged, and - since it made a big impression on me as a kid - how I view it as an adult.