Rating:
Director: Callie Khouri
Producer: Bonnie Bruckheimer, Hunt Lowry
Writer: Callie Khouri
Director of Photography: John Bailey
Cast: Ashley Judd, Sandra Bullock, James Garner, Maggie Smith
| DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD Rating: Director: Callie Khouri Producer: Bonnie Bruckheimer, Hunt Lowry Writer: Callie Khouri Director of Photography: John Bailey Cast: Ashley Judd, Sandra Bullock, James Garner, Maggie Smith |
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Review by: Ryan
Kugler
6/09/02
I'd like to take the time to congratulate myself on making it through my first full-fledged "chick flick" since Steel Magnolias. That's right, I took the plunge, saw Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and lived to tell the tale, though just barely. You see, a fire alarm sounded during the final reel, causing the screen to go black, strobe lights to flash uncontrollably and the capacity crowd to run for cover. Visions of having to return the next day to trudge through this slow, nostalgic, tearjerker all over again ran through my head, but luckily (or un, depending on how you look at it), we were able to return to our seats and finish the film.
This is a project that was made by a woman, predominantly stars women (though 2 of the minor roles are written and performed as passive and wimpy men) and whose target audience are women (99% of the opening night screening I attended). One of the first credits to appear on-screen even reads, An All Girl Production. So, what was a guy like me doing in a film like this during the second game of the NBA finals? My job.
Sandra Bullock stars as Sidda, a playwright who has just given her first interview to Time magazine, where she rips both the strained relationship that she has with her mother and her southern upbringing. This doesn't sit well with Vivi (Ellen Burstyn), who thinks that her daughter's ungrateful and had no business exposing their hardships and falling-outs to the world. This starts a small war, where each proceeds to mail each other ripped-up photos of one another.
Sidda also has current problems on the homefront. She lives with and is engaged to Conner (Braveheart's Angus MacFadyen), but she can't commit to a date, which drives him crazy. Is it something from her past that causes this commitment phobia? Stay tuned.
Vivi's friends (the same ones from her childhood and the ones that make up the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a club that they all started when they were young and which Vivi is the leader of) hate to see her so angered by the Time article and decide to act. They would love nothing more than a mother/daughter reconciliation, so they go on a little Ya-Ya mission and pay a visit to Sidda. Once there, they drug and kidnap her and bring her back to one of their homes in the south, without telling Vivi.
The rest of the film takes place in this house as the three friends (Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight and Maggie Smith) school Siddi on the truth about them, her upbringing and the joys of the South. Ashley Judd plays Vivi as a young adult in flashbacks (which take up the majority of screen time from here on out) and through these stories, Siddi is able to learn and understand why both her mother and she turned out the way that they did.
This marks the directorial debut of Academy Award winning screenwriter (Thelma and Louise) Callie Khouri. Not knowing a whole lot about mother/daughter relationships or the South, I'm not sure how authentic this material is, but she does a good enough job with directing chores and it's a nice looking film. I particularly liked the look of the flashbacks (though they seemed to come randomly and they jumped in time without any real explanation).
Most of the problems that I had were with the screenplay. I didn't read the novel, but in the film, Sidda and Vivi are one-dimensional characters and they're both quite unlikable, which makes it hard to care about their relationship (the central focus of the film). All of the problems and issues that they're dealing with remain strictly on the surface and we never really get to the root of anything. When it was over, I understood where the problems came from, but I didn't buy the explanation and I surely didn't accept the simple and unconvincing resolution. The other characters are written and played as stereotypical southern women that we've seen countless times before. They have their quirks and they deliver some funny one-liners (the films only comic relief), but there's nothing new here and their tired shtick gets old.
The performances themselves are all over the map. Bullock underplays (and both gains and loses her accent throughout) and Judd overplays (turning into Mommie Dearest during the final fourth). Burstyn once again turns in the best performance in an ensemble cast as she did in Requiem for a Dream.
I don't want to sound like I didn't enjoy
spending time with the Ya-Ya Sisterhood strictly because
I'm a guy (hell, I'm sensitive and like this stuff when it's well
done as my affinity for The Joy Luck Club attests to).
I tried to go into this with an open mind as I really liked and
respected what Khouri did with Thelma and Louise and I've
enjoyed the work of these actors before (though with both Bullock
and Judd, it's been a long time), but I didn't get involved with
the material. If this were a story that focused on a father/son
relationship and featured a bunch of wacky southern guys in supporting
roles, I would have felt the same. Still, if you like this type
of thing (which apparently many do, judging by the laughter throughout
and applause at the end), then by all means, go and enjoy yourself,
just don't expect too much. Ya-Ya.
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