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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 34574
Released: March 2, 2004 |
| Our Price: $1.75 |
| Used Price: $1.46 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A thought provoking documentary in which golden glove nomimaed actress rosanna arquette talks to the film industrys most talented and award winning actresses about the pressures they face as women working in show business Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/30/2005 Starring: Rosanna Arquette Diane Lane Whoopi Goldberg Run time: 99 minutes Rating: R
Searching for Debra Winger Reviews:
A Mixed Bag 
2008-11-16 - There were many things I did and did not like about this documentary regarding ageism, women, and the double standard in Hollywood. I remember reading an interview with Susan Anspach about ten or fifteen years ago complaining about parts drying up for women her age, yet the male actors she acted with at the start of her career were still going strong. It was terrific to see Theresa Russell again, a wonderful and beautiful actress who never got a really big break. Far and away Whoopi Goldberg was the strongest and most honest of all the interviewees, but since her career was never based on her looks, primarily on talent, I'm not sure that the challenge of ageism in Hollywood affects her as much. My main complaint is that already this documentary seems dated and why not also reach out and include actresses who came before these leading ladies and also faced age discrimination and on a much broader scale. Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds from the 1950's, some of the great actresses of the 1940's. They aren't all dead and I believe that would have made this film stronger and packed a harder punch.
Interesting and full of talent 
2007-11-16 - If you are a film buff and are interested in the listed actresses,this film will not disappoint. It highlights an issue that is very real and pervasive: where are the scripts and stories about adult women, for adult women and by adult women? It's well done and captivating.
Arquette's Personal Quest Turns Into a Meandering, Self-Indulgent Look at Hollywood Sexism 
2006-06-05 - In 1996's "The First Wives Club", Goldie Hawn, as an aging actress, has a piercingly perceptive line courtesy of screenwriter Robert Harling, "In Hollywood, women only have three ages: babe, district attorney, and 'Driving Miss Daisy'". Actress Rosanna Arquette has decided to explore this unfortunately true perspective in her 2002 documentary where she speaks with thirty-five renowned actresses of varying ages. Even though it's doubtful any of them are facing economic hardship, their dilemmas would still make a worthy subject for a film, but she makes it such an overly personalized odyssey over her own tenuous success as a 43-year old actress and mother that she is unable to provide anything significantly insightful on the topic.
Instead, we are left with a film with some revealing moments but more commonly, a haphazard structure of interview snippets that seem to make the same set of points over and over again - the incessant struggle to find good roles for women past forty, the precarious balance between managing a career and raising a family, and the myopia of profit-minded studio executives interested in what teenage males want to see (at least according to film critic Roger Ebert, the only male interviewed). The problem is that Arquette, as a documentarian, cannot provide much-needed objectivity to her subject, as she repeatedly interjects with her personal experiences when she is not fawning over her subjects. Her lack of discipline extends into her editing as there is no sense of organization to her narrative other than how she came upon the actresses, whether proactively seeking them out individually, organizing lunches (like what Jon Favreau does with his TV series, "Dinner for Five") or happening upon them at Cannes (like surprising a thankfully good-humored Frances McDormand in the ladies room). Truth be told, some come off quite badly as they fumble through unformed thoughts or mind-numbing analogies. Meg Ryan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Emmanuelle Béart come to mind.
Some like Robin Wright Penn and Charlotte Rampling reveal so little about themselves that their inclusion provides questionable value, and a self-consciously glamorous Sharon Stone comes across as rather disingenuous when she talks about her abandonment of vanity. But others provide nuggets of wisdom like Holly Hunter, Diane Lane, Salma Hayek, Martha Plimpton (who has forsaken movies for the stage) and a predictably funny Whoopi Goldberg. Leave it to veterans Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda to offer the film's most honest, insightful comments, the latter especially revealing in how former husband Ted Turner encouraged her retirement and then sharing how she feels when she nails a pivotal scene in a movie. Fortunately, Debra Winger, whose self-imposed (and ultimately short-lived) retirement inspired the film's eponymous title, shows herself to be the trenchantly sardonic, perceptive non-conformist she obviously is. The film really contains very little when it comes to revelations about the inherent sexism of the film industry, and Arquette's personal catharsis frankly does not resonate enough to make the film worthwhile. Other than some trailers, the DVD has no extras.
Missed Opportunity
2006-04-12 - Searching for Debra Winger woulda, coulda, shoulda. What a complete disappointment for me to see famous actresses given the chance to peel away their manufactured facade for a few minutes only to be constantly interrupted by the interviewer who is a poor listener at best and one who obviously did no home work due to the fact that she kept asking, either the same question over and over again or injecting her opinion inside a question 'trying' to be answered.
There was a moment in the Russian Tea Room that should have set the tone for this documentary. Instead it was completely ignored which is a feeling that runs throughout this docu. The majority of these women's opinions were reduced to sound bites. It was embarrassing when Holly Hunter who is in a word that was constantly used and used again, awesome, have her moment interrupted by the interviewer (shocker there) by injecting "I want to see them." Poor, extremely poor and a good reason why there are journalist and actors and they are not one in the same.
What a shame.
Two stars for Martha Plimpton
2006-03-10 - The best part of this film was seeing Martha Plimpton - one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood, smoking a cigarette and forcefully expressing her wish to see great characters in film for women. That was worth the price of admission. The rest...eh.
Most of these actresses are average at best, and managed to secure a great career because of their looks. Not one of them could be described as unattractive. But when 40 looms closer, suddenly the roles aren't there. This is unfair. What's really unfair, is that most of these women got roles in the FIRST PLACE because of their beauty, while their lesser-attractive counterpart had to take a job at Starbucks. Never do any of them mention this - that plain women, short women, women of colour - have almost no roles available to them. There is one token black actress in this documentary (Alfre Woodard) and one Latina (Salma Hayak). The rest are white, and mostly blonde.
Their scope of reference is incredibly narrow, insufferably self-absorbed, and lacking any real analysis. Acting is not high art, yet these actresses kept referring to their "craft", their "passion", etc. as though it were an out-of-control compulsion. Their films have not changed the world. And hearing how "hard" it is to do one crummy film a year while raising children was especially disturbing. It's as though these women have absolutely nothing else on the ball - no other hobbies, passions, talents, etc. The saddest part was seeing Theresa Russell - an excellent actress - talk about running out of money. Surely, there is something else she could do.
The sexism, ageism, and racism in Hollywood is appalling, no doubt. Therefore, these smart, rich women should get together and start writing their own scripts, their own movies, and getting their stories seen and heard on their own.
