Karry
Best movie of this year hands down!
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Caryl
It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
Bill Phillips
Actually this is a very good comedy/farce about secrets in everyone's past romantic liaisons. I don't generally like comedy/farce but director Francois Ozon is so good at it I've softened on the genre. The song and dance scenes are hilarious... great fun. And, the story line is superb and perceptive about human frailty in the "battle of the sexes."The 4 rating is for trivializing the suicide of a father which is neither trivial nor funny if it has ever happened to you. Ozon has to take some responsibility for making light of one of the most painful and tragic events a child can ever suffer. Some things are just not funny and should be off limits in comedy. If you really think about it, there are many topics that are so sensitive and morally indisputable that they are never made light of in movies. Unfortunately, suicide is not one of them.
Kirpianuscus
why see it. for the humor. for the style of Ozon - one of my favorite directors -, for the old fashion story. and, not the last, for the magnificent cast, a short, seductive, convincing history of French cinema. it is one of films who remains as nice memory for its admirable flavor. for the dialogues. and, sure, for the air as scent from a world who escapes to a clear definition. a film about family. and about the power of women. about a crime. and about the answers as a complicated, fascinating puzzle. this is all. a beautiful film. and a good occasion to discover a play, not real different by many others, in the perfect manner to show it.
chaos-rampant
The French are dreamers, intellectuals, and oh so silly when they put their mind to it.This is good as far as the last two. The plot is that a man is found dead one morning in his plush bedroom and the 8 women in his life have to suss out the culprit among them. Very theatric, very Agatha Christie; the focus is not on visual exploration of emotional space but the space as defined by crisp, very crisp human presence competing for who can conceal best while teasing more. Whereas in a Wes Anderson film we'd have stylized nonexpression, here it's all about expressiveness. It is enjoyable to watch largely because it is so well cast. Each of the 8 women carves her space so well, besides the rotund maid and old crone who aren't given memorable roles. Deneuve is her usual icy, immaculate self, Ardant sultry and mysterious, Sagnier demure, Beart just lovely. My favorite by far is the wonderful Huppert as the neurotic spinster aunt; her movements and timing are a joy to watch, even moreso if you know her from previous films.That covers fun. The intellectual side to it is that we don't just have 8 women but different selves of the same soul shaped by some different caprice. This is seen in the mirrored pregnancy, mirrored murder and feelings of sexual escape, but best of all is the quadruply mirrored hairdo and how it's revealed.But the dreaming disappoints.Ostensibly this would be carried in the different songs, one for each woman. But only Huppert's shatters the walls of artifice and cartoony image to reach out to the long night of fragile, searching self.
Terrell-4
8 Women is a lightweight, stylish and funny murder mystery. But forget the murder. The movie really is a terrific excuse to have several of France's greatest actresses strut their stuff. We might as well get the plot out of the way quickly. There's a snowed-in country home, elegant looking and filled with elegant women. A man is found dead and one of the women in the house killed him. Who and why? In addition to the male corpse, there's the corpse's wife, his mother-in-law, his two daughters, his sister, his sister-in-law, the chambermaid and the housekeeper. In order, they are Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Virginie Ledoyan and Ludivine Sagnier, Fanny Ardant, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart and Firmine Richard. And as they tell us their stories, while the corpse stays chilled in an upstairs bedroom, they each sing French pop songs. It's all odd, funny and endearing. If they all look much like a selection of French bon bons, that's because the movie itself looks like a colorful candy box. Isabelle Huppert is one of my favorite actresses in any language, and it was good to see her play an amusing part for a change. I'm not sure how many other actresses of her caliber can glare and make it funny. Danielle Darrieux at 85 is a wonder. The sight of Fannie Ardant and Catherine Deneuve rolling around on the floor in a semi-Sapphic tussle was gripping. And those who want to have their illusions about tomboys shattered, just watch Sagnier as the youngest daughter here and then as the under-clothed bombshell she played the following year in Swimming Pool. Who is the killer? You won't find out from me, although that's scarcely the point of the movie. As Darrieux tells us in song, "There is no happy love." Still, murder can be a pleasure when it involves these eight actresses.
