The First Wives Club

The First Wives Club is a famous film based on the novel with the same name written by Olivia Goldsmith. The film debut on September 20, 1996, and has since become a cult film amongst many middle age women; the film was also a tremendous success when it first premiered in 1996, eventually grossing close to 200 million dollars at the box office. It was the work of producer Scott Rudin, and directed by Hugh Wilson.

The exceptionally gifted cast includes: Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker and Dan Hedaya amongst others. The film also has cameos by Stockard Channing and Heather Locklear.

For all intense and purposes, the film has been dubbed by the masses a “chick flick”, nevertheless, any man or woman will fall to the ground laughing, so be sure you're seated when you're watching the film.

Plot
The film has something of a paradoxical beginning, because you don’t quite know if it’s going to be a drama or comedy? - Good literary technique.... Four best friends Elise, Brenda, Annie and Cynthia (Hawn, Midler, Keaton and Channing) graduate college and take group pictures of themselves never to be seeing together again.

The film now fasts forward more than 20 years into the future. Cynthia is now alone after a dreadful divorce, and after bidding her last farewell to her maid, commits suicide by jumping down from her lavished high rise New York penthouse.

The three women met at Cynthia’s funeral for the first time in over 20 years. Well, no matter how tragic a plot line is, the minute you introduce Midler, it becomes a comedy on the spot. Midler’s verbal and facial expressions, not to mention her funny walk, will make even the harshest prude start to laugh; Midler is no doubt one of the funniest female comedians around today. The three women decide to go to a restaurant for lunch to discuss old times. Unbeknown to the three of them, they are all going through some very difficult marital problems; Brenda is divorced and trying to raise a young son on her own; Annie is separated and getting therapy; Elise, who was a very beautiful and famous actress once, is now older and herself going through a terrible divorce. Aside from trouble waters, the other thing these three middle age ladies have in common, is that their spouses have all left them for much younger women (although at this time in the film, Annie is not aware of this fact yet).

It’s now Brenda’s son’s Bar mitzvah, and both Brenda and Annie find out from Brenda’s uncle that her ex Morty ( a very successful electronics store owner) has committed tax fraud and could potentially owe millions of dollars in back taxes to the IRS.

The three women then hatch up a plan that will allow them to put up a business (“The First Wives Club” - film’s namesake) in which to conduct their operations from. One of the things which they orchestrate, is auctioning some things from Elise’s husband which are virtually worthless, for exuberant amounts of money to Morty’s (Brenda’s ex) naive young fiancée (played by Parker) whom will believe anything when told to her by Gunila (Maggie Smith), an extremely rich and important New York socialite who is friends with Elise, and is really setting Morty’s fiancée up.

At first, their plans are thwarted by many obstacles, but eventually the three women triumph and get back at their husband’s for having wronged them the way they did; Elise makes an acting comeback; Annie takes over her husband’s advertising agency; and Brenda takes over her ex-husband’s Morty’s electronics business after she threatens him by saying that he either agrees, or she’ll contact the IRS forcing him into ruin/bankruptcy - plus a long prison term for tax fraud. The three men stay in their original business posts, but in reality they are just mere puppets of their three vindictive, but ultimately kind and fair ex wives....