She-Devil (1989) Orion/Comedy RT: 99 minutes Rated PG-13 (sexual conversation/innuendo, language) Director: Susan Seidelman Screenplay: Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns Music: Howard Shore Cinematography: Oliver Stapleton Release date: December 8, 1989 (US) Cast: Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, Ed Begley Jr., Sylvia Miles, Linda Hunt, A Martinez, Elisebeth Peters, Bryan Larkin, Maria Pitillo, Mary Louise Wilson, Deborah Rush, Susan Willis, Jack Gilpin, Robin Leach. Box Office: $15.4M (US)
Rating: ***
I make no bones about my dislike of Roseanne Barr. It’s nothing to do with her looks, I’m NOT that shallow. It’s that I find her incredibly grating. I never liked her sitcom. That voice of hers is like fingernails on a blackboard to me. I don’t think she’s funny. She just gets on my nerves. It’s because of this I didn’t think I’d like She-Devil even though it’s directed by Susan Seidelman, a filmmaker whose offbeat sensibility I love. It shows in comedies like Desperately Seeking Susan, Making Mr. Right and the underrated Cookie. I steeled myself for an annoying 99 minutes only to find She-Devil wasn’t the torture-fest I thought it would be. It’s actually a pretty good dark comedy albeit an uneven one.
Roseanne plays Ruth Patchett, a fat, clumsy suburban housewife with a big ugly mole on her upper lip. She’s married to Bob (Begley, Get Crazy), an accountant who doesn’t treat her very well. He’s always looking to expand his business which is why he really doesn’t want Ruth to accompany him to a lavish dinner party. He’s afraid she’ll embarrass him. Well, it’s because of her clumsiness that he makes the acquaintance of Mary Fisher (Streep, A Cry in the Dark), a super-successful trash romance novelist who gives new meaning to the word “narcissist”. Bob doesn’t even try to hide his instant attraction from his wife. He drops her off a block from their home so he can drive 75 miles to take Mary home. What a stand-up guy…. NOT!
Eventually, Ruth confronts Bob about his affair and he responds by packing his suitcase. Before he leaves, he tells Ruth that his four most important assets are his home, family, career and freedom. This will be the foundation for her revenge. She makes a list, crossing off each item as she destroys it. She starts by blowing up their house. Then she drops their two kids, Nicolette (Peters, Rocky V) and Andy (Larkin, Jacob’s Ladder), at Mary’s mansion where she announces that they’re all his… and hers. She has no intention of returning for them.
Next, Ruth reinvents herself as Vesta Rose and takes a job at the nursing home where Mary has her mother (Miles, Crossing Delancey) stashed and drugged. Ruth fixes it so Mary’s mom gets kicked out of the home and has to live with her daughter. Of course, Mom is a foul-mouthed, embarrassing sort with absolutely no filter. Wait until you hear what she tells a reporter from People magazine about her daughter. As Bob and Mary’s perfect lives collapse around them, their relationship deteriorates as well. Meanwhile, Ruth/Vesta becomes a success when she opens an employment agency for overlooked women, society’s female rejects. Of course, she never abandons her plan to utterly ruin her philandering husband’s life.
For some reason, I don’t mind Roseanne so much in She-Devil. It’s probably because I sympathize with her character. What Bob does to her is awful. In fact, it sucks. He’s a big jerk, always putting Ruth down. Bob’s dad (played by an uncredited Clifton James) is a bigger one. Their kids are ungrateful, entitled brats who care more about the things they lost in the fire than their mother’s welfare. They never even ask if she’s okay. This actually works to Ruth’s advantage as they make a mess of Mary’s perfect home with some help from their dog. That reminds me, I hate what happens to Mary’s little white poodle. NOBODY deserves that, not even a narcissistic bitch like Mary. In any event, She-Devil marks the only time I’ve ever liked Roseanne in anything although like might be too strong a word. Why don’t we say “favorably tolerated” instead?
After so many serious roles, it’s nice to see Streep has a flair for comedy. It’s on full display in She-Devil as she tries to deal with all the new crap life has sent her way while she’s trying to finish her latest POS novel. This is a woman who lies about her age (NO way she’s 34!), employs a sexy butler (Martinez, Santa Barbara) who does anything but “buttle” and puts on a merry public façade as easily as one puts on a shirt. One thing she can’t do is laundry; I’ve seen toddlers with a better idea of what does and doesn’t go in the washer. The bottom line is she’s funny as the type of woman who gives feminism a bad name. Miles is a riot as the mother who openly discusses her bowel issues at the dinner table. Begley is sufficiently nasty as the husband due for a big takedown.
Not all of She-Devil works. Like I said earlier, it’s uneven. Some of it is funny and some of it is not very funny. It’s a bit clumsy at times. The scene with Ruth walking away from her house as it explodes is superimposed. Linda Hunt (Kindergarten Cop) is seriously underused as a friend who helps Ruth in her crusade for justice and self-esteem. It does have a satisfying ending though. Come on, who doesn’t love a good revenge story where the bad guy (or gal) really bites it in the end. It may not have been boffo at the box office, but She-Devil is good devilish fun (mostly).
