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The First Wives Club

1996

Hugh Wilson

Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker ...

5.2

7,675

Comedy Three former college chums -- vain Elise, brassy Brenda and wimpy Annie -- reunite after the death of a friend. Soon, the ladies discover that they've all been recently dumped by their smarmy husbands for younger, nubile women. The neurotic trio decide to band together and seek vengeance, using such bureaucratic methods as the IRS and the legal system. But their dogged efforts lead the femmes to break laws themselves. Lots of them. So ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly	"The First Wives Club has all the conviction a comedy of female vengeance needs. But as soon as the dumb plot takes over, the wit leaks out of the movie like helium from a balloon."	NEU
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"The success of The First Wives Club rests on the way it makes the audience feel like insiders, like part of a glamorous Hollywood club."	POS
United States	Mike Clark USA Today	"Diane Keaton is at her best here, Goldie Hawn has never been this good, and we know going in that Bette Midler is virtually tailored to a raucous farce about the sweet revenge of spurned spouses."	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"As pure entertainment, this witty revenge romp is sinfully satisfying"	POS
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"There is undoubtedly a movie to be made about this material -- a different movie."	NEU
United Kingdom	Empire	"What starts out so promisingly with some witty one-liners loses itself in the middle and finally descends into a slapstick routine that cries out for a touch of sophistication."	NEG
United States	Leonard Klady Variety	"At its core, the film is a celebration of its star trio as consummate performers. In that respect, 'First Wives Club' is a highly enjoyable movie romp."	POS
United States	Edward Guthmann SFGATE	"It's a glamorous revenge romp, a '9 to 5' mixed with 'Auntie Mame,' and it gives each star the opportunity to do her best work in a long, long time."	POS
United States	James Berardinelli ReelViews	"A largely uninspired (and unfunny) comedy that collapses completely in the final fifteen minutes."	NEG
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"thanks to great existential one-liners from scriptwriter Robert Harling (with appropriate plaudits to novelist Olivia Goldsmith, of course), gender warfare is made amusing for almost everyone."	POS
United States	Elvis Mitchell The New York Times	"What makes its premise especially funny is that, at heart, it's no laughing matter."	POS
United States	Alison Macor Austin Chronicle	"As a satire this film would be hilarious, but writer Robert Harling's ("Soapdish") script doesn't quite hit the mark."	NEG
United States	TV Guide	"Yes, it's great that Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler get to carry a major motion picture, playing college chums reunited by the perfidy of men."	POS

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