News

The Age

Friday November 21, 2008

Craig Mathieson

DESPITE the phenomenal success of Sex and the City and the fact that half the world's population is female, Hollywood is still shy about making movies for or about women.

But when push comes to shove, there's always Valentine's Day. The studios have obviously decided that this is the one annual occasion when women drive the movie choice, because they have crammed every vaguely relatable release on their schedule into a single release date: February 12, 2009 (Valentine's Day next year is February 14). If you want star power and the struggle to understand men, there's He's Just Not That Into You - which was a single line in Seinfeld that became a self-help book - with Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore and Scarlett Johansson.

Filling the "successful career woman gets transplanted from big city to small town and re-evaluates her life" slot is Chilled in Miami, where Renee Zellweger will probably bumble through all types of rural misfortunes. The broad comedy slot goes to Confessions of a Shopaholic, where Muriel's Wedding director P.J.Hogan directs another Australian expatriate, Isla Fisher (The Wedding Crashers), in the story of a retail addict with too many credit card bills. That's an example of an idea that 18 months ago, on approval, might have sounded amusing, but now in recessionary times might scare audiences. The arthouse scene even has an entrant, with Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme looking for a return to form with Rachel Getting Married. Anne Hathaway plays a just out-of-rehab model who returns home for her sister's wedding, leading to various family confrontations. The ultimate effect is that since all these movies are grouped together, some will have to disappoint commercially.

To Hollywood that's evidence that there is not a viable market, so their next batch of releases will get crammed into Valentine's Day 2010. -- CRAIG MATHIESON

© 2008 The Age

Back to News Index | Back to Home