She-Devil (1989)
Roseanne Barr stars as Ruth Pratchett, a devoted wife to her accountant hubby Bob (Begley Jr.), and mother to two precocious children. One day while attending a swank party, Bob meets and eventually has a fling with best-selling romance novelist Mary Fisher (Streep), and while they do their best to keep things under wraps, Ruth knows better. As their marriage falls apart, Ruth vows revenge, and set about destroying all of the things good old Bob and his mistress hold dear – his home, his family, his career, and his freedom.
It’s an interesting cast and a funny premise, loosely derived from the first half of Fay Weldon’s 1983 novel, “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil” (which had been adapted already into a much more faithful BBC miniseries). Weldon had also received interest from John Huston for a film adaptation, but sided with Seidelman, because she seemed to have more of a personal connection with the work. Ironic that Weldon would hate the movie that Seidelman made, especially in turning her novel into a screwball comedy. This would seem like a cant-miss comedy, especially as we watch popular TV star Roseanne in a role that would allow her to cut loose as a comedic actress. However, the comic juice runs out surprisingly early in this misfire, as we watch the characters run through predictable motions, and eventually, the noise and mayhem run rampant without the necessary laughs to go along with them.
This would prove to be the first fully comedic performance for Streep, who was feeling burnt out and actively looking for a comedy to sink her teeth into, which would also get rid of the bugaboo that had been plaguing her in terms of whether she could perform in a comedic role. Seidelman shared the same agent as Meryl Streep, so when he received it, knowing Meryl was looking to stretch her repertoire into comedy, he handed her the script. That screenplay came without any designation on which role Streep was being considered for, but she came back expressing keen interest in the Mary Fisher role. Seidelman had originally envisioned Streep in the lead role of Ruth, but was delightfully surprised, with Streep rationalizing that the Ruth role was somewhat similar to one in which she had just made, A Cry in the Dark (aka, Evil Angels), just the year before.
However, as Streep is a heavyweight in terms of screen presence, Seidelman now had the difficult role of finding an adequate counterbalance, feeling like the role of Ruth would need someone even more audacious, ultimately making an offer to stand-up comedian and TV star Roseanne Barr to take on her first film role. Still, for all of the interest in balance, Barr and Streep only share one fully interactive scene together, leading some to feel disappointed that what should be an odd couple rivalry wouldn’t get as down and nasty between the two actresses as they were anticipating from the posters and advertisements. While many were expecting a huge cat-fight, Seidelman took the approach that Ruth’s revenge would be laser-focused on ruining her husband’s life, not the women he has an affair with. She becomes a champion to disenfranchised women, many of whom are overlooked because they do not conform to men’s notions of beauty, creating a feminist narrative that women need to fight against the patriarchal, looks-first system holding them down and not with each other.
Part of the problem is the casting of Roseanne, as she doesn’t appear to have the screen presence or comic charisma to truly take hold of this movie and run with it, letting comic turns by Begley (in a role that was offered first to Jeff Daniels and Jeff Bridges), Streep and just about everyone else in the supporting cast, carry the load of getting some laughs, although the script doesn’t exactly give them much material to work with. Streep would receive a Golden Globe nomination for her surprisingly robust comic performance; it’s a shame it mostly went to waste in such a misfire.
She-Devil, despite two famous lead actresses to help promote it, would prove to be a misfire at the box office, only taking in about $15 million on a budget that just exceeded that (reportedly between $16 and $25 million. Released the same week as another black comedy, The War of the Roses, didn’t help, as the latter film would steal all of the thunder and headlines in promotion, and then bad critical ratings further sunk the film to staying in the top ten only one week in its release.
Although there are people who’ve come to like She-Devil over the years, it hasn’t elevated in status for most critics since its release. An October 2018 Newsweek article ranking the Meryl Streep films from best to worst puts it as her worst (number 52 out of 52 listed).
Feminist leanings in the material could have provided a strong backbone to build a satire around, but Seidelman directs the film as if it were a broad farce, and whatever intelligence it might have had gets sucked out for cheap confrontations to evoke a few chuckles. Championing the cause of the unattractive and unloved should have made Ruth a natural heroine, and yet, it’s not easy to sympathize with a character so obviously artificial in the broadest of ways. The crazed antics shoot for the moon but She-Devil never manages to get off the ground.
Qwipster’s rating: D+
MPAA Rated: PG-13 for sexuality, some violence, and language
Running Time: 99 min.
Cast: Roseanne Barr, Meryl Streep, Ed Begley Jr., Linda Hunt, Sylvia Miles, Elisabeth Peters, Bryan Larkin, A Martinez, Maria Pitillo, Robin Leach, Sally Jessy Raphael (cameo)
Director: Susan Seidelman
Screenplay: Barry Strugatz, Mark R. Burns (from the novel, “The Life and Loves of a She-Devil” by Fay Weldon)