"Something to Talk About" A film review by Linda Lopez McAlister on "The Women's Show" WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL August 12, 1995 In all the years I've been writing film reviews, I have never once, before today, said that a film is a good "date movie" (and frequently I'm astonished by which films are given that appelation by other reviewers). But I think that if you have a boyfriend or a husband you should take him to see "Something To Talk About." This is a women's film, that is, it was made essentially by women and is from a woman's perspective throughout. But my hunch is that it was made FOR men. I think the women who put it together (executive producer Goldie Hawn, producers Anthea Sylbert and Paula Weinstein, screenwriter Callie Khouri of "Thelma and Louise" fame) are probably heterosexual women who have been dealing with men for a long time and have a message they want to deliver: stop being such jerks. I should mention that they did hire some Scandanavian men to work on the project too, Lasse Hallstrom (who previously directed such films as "My Life As A Dog" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape") and cinematographer Sven Nyquist, who gives us a lush and gorgeous visual landscape against which this domestic comedy with a message is played out. Julia Roberts plays Grace King Bichon, a wealthy Southern wife and mother who lives in a Savannah townhouse with her husband Eddie (Dennis Quaid) and 7 year old daughter Caroline, works part-time for her father, and belongs to the women's clubs appropriate to her station in white, upper-class, Southern society. She is one of two daughters of Wylie and Georgina King (Robert Duvall and Gena Rowlands) who own King Farms, where they breed and train horses for championship equestrian jumping events. Both Grace and her sister Emma Rae (Kyra Sedgwick) work for their father on the horse farm. The feisty, unmarried older sister Emma Rae lives in a small house on the grounds while their parents share a fairly ostentations "nouveau anti-bellum" mansion. When Grace discovers Eddie kissing a blonde in public, spending both days and evenings with her, and then lying about it, she and Caroline head for Emma Rae's house. The plot of the film is simply the trajectory of the marriage from that point on and the ways in which the various members of this family react to Eddie's philandering and Grace's leaving him. For example, Georgina, who has been Wylie's faithful helpmeet for thirty years or more, is best described by feminist theorist Marilyn Frye's phrase "patriarchal loyalist." She comes to see her daughter to tell her that she needs to understand that Eddie has just "slipped" a little and it's up to her to help him get back on the right track. Wylie sees it as an inconvenient obstacle to a business deal he's negotiating with Eddie's father. Emma Rae's reaction is a bit more to the point; she knees Eddie in the groin the next time she sees him. (Making this film the only known exception to "McAlister's Law" that says any film that shows a man being so attacked will be panned by the male critics. This one hasn't been; probably because the men in the film, though definitely jerks, still display some loveable characteristics and are able to change for the better.) I daren't give any more of the plot away, but let me just say that it doesn't end exactly the way it would have in a "classical Hollywood" film. Eddie's saying he's sorry (and meaning it) is not the final scene in 1995 as it would have been in 1955. Grace comes to look upon this break up as an opportunity to make some necessary changes in her life and to become more the person she wants to be, rather than the good little Southern matron she became when she dropped out of school to marry Eddie. She's not the only one who begins to get the message in this film. By the end, all have had their eyes opened a bit, with the possible exception of Emma Rae who seems to have taken her blinders off a long time ago. This is an enjoyable, intelligent domestic melodrama/comedy. It may not have the same feminist punch as "Thelma and Louise" did, but its message may be easier to hear and, therefore, more effective in the long run. For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film. . Copyright 1995 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not reprint this review without the permission of the author.