Why ‘The Women’ made me want to snip my credit cards
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When we first see Annette Bening in ‘The Women’ -- which just opened this past weekend -- she is piloting through Saks with the ferocity of a killer white. Her highly acute shopper radar zeros in on various designer items -- Prada, Marc Jacobs, etc. -- in the same way that a sniper’s scope assesses a target. Or a dude sizes up single women in a bar. It’s supposed to be funny. I didn’t laugh.
To me, the scene and the countless ensuing shots of Saks are the worst aspect of ‘The Women.’ It’s entertainment for shopbots. There seems to be product placement -- from name-dropping designer Narciso Rodriguez, whose clothes are used in the final runway show, to more Saks gushing to the ravings about LaPerla lingerie -- in the majority of the scenes. I can’t help but wonder if ‘Sex and the City’ opened up this Pandora’s box of product placement for women’s movies and now directors and producers think, ‘We can make this movie if we name check Gucci 12 times in the first 30 minutes and get Bloomingdale’s on board for shopping bags.’
The tagline on the film’s website announces: ‘It’s all about ... The Women.’ Really, it’s all about the ... Credit Card Debt.
Did anyone else notice that scene in which Annette Bening and Meg Ryan saunter down a New York street, laden with shopping bags? If you look closely, you will see that almost every gal (there are no men in this film) in the shot is holding a shopping bag too. One women, in particular, who is toting a Saks bag manages to keep pace with them for the entire scene. With every footfall, we’re reminded ‘Go to Saks. Shop at Saks. Go to Saks.’ FYI: I was just in Manhattan and saw women carrying briefcases and grocery bags and fidgety babies and leashes attached to dogs too. I also saw women who walked down the street, carrying nothing at all.
Now, I like to shop. But does a woman’s rabid consumerism have to define her nearly throughout a movie? My favorite scene in ‘The Women’ has Meg Ryan chomping on a stick of butter --- only because there is no shopping bag and it’s not emblazoned with a logo.
-- Monica Corcoran