Women in Trouble

by: Paolo Sardinas

Movies which are made with an all female cast tend to not do so well. Mainly due to the fact they they usually only appeal to women. A dramedy which is lead by an all female cast doesn't exactly scream entertainment to men. Unless is there's sex. Which, I must honestly say is the only real reason I decided to watch this film in the first place. Hey what can I say men love sex. And in Women in Trouble there's plenty of it. Not it's not like those sappy and mundane "rom-coms" nor is it the latest batch of Sex and City. As far as I'm concerned very few all female casts are able to create characters which truly jump off the screen. Well Women in Trouble does it with enough style that, once you get past the wild and extremely messy plot line, manages to be a somewhat entertaining film.

Director/writer Sebastian Gutierrez obviously had some difficulty creating this all female cast. Bad acting and campy sex is obviously the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the premise of a film which follows the lives of ten women living in L.A. Well at least the bad acting is gone. Gutierrez's other work is nothing even remotely close to this. Gothika and Snakes on a Plane didn't exactly throw out Oscar winning performances and definitely didn't featuring creative stories, nor did it offer us a good time at the movies. Those films featured more of the bad acting and campiness than you could ever imagine. Though Women in Trouble managed to get some laughs out of the various crowds, its still features one of the craziest stories I've seen in awhile and is quite a mess. A fun mess.

All ten women all have different situations and problems. All of which seem to collide on the same day. You got Electra Luxx, a definite cult classic, played by the wonderful Carla Gugino. She has just found out shes pregnant to some drummer of some band. Oh did I mention she's a porn star. And that drummer just so happens to be the always entertaining Josh Brolin. Daddy tries to woo a lovely flight attendant played by Marley Shelton. While trying to get in contact with the daddy to be, Elektra runs into Doris(Connie Britton). A neurotic woman whose seems to be emotionally trapped by her daughter played by the director's(yes I'm tired of spelling his name) daughter, Isabella. Then we have Maxine, a therapist whose played by Sarah Clarke. She's just discovered that her husband(The Mentalist Simon Baker) has been sleeping around with Addy (Caitlin Keats). Thrown into the mix are two party girls played by Adrianne Palicki and Emanuelle Chriqui.

The film is ridiculously complicated but since the story mainly revolves around the women previously mentioned theres no reason to really talk about anyone else. Shot in about two weeks it's amazing they were able to get this much done in that amount of time. Though the film doesn't exactly reach any levels of dramatic depth, it does offer plenty of laughs and leads which are undeniably entertaining. These characters' and their ever so changing lives are oddly fascinating. For example Palicki's character is a porn star. Yes whoope, but she isn't just any porn star. Shes one who has some trouble doing her scenes. She also vomits. Allot. Though most of these scenes feature her getting close and personal with other women she doesn't really like that too much. All of the films actresses and actors do a fine job of bringing their characters to life. No matter how unflattering the material may be.

The movie pretty much rests on Carla Gugino's performance. Her character will be appearing in an upcoming trilogy, this being the first, and deals with most of the film's subject matter. Motherhood and what not are not easy subjects. But when placed into a female lead film its virtually impossible for it not to come up. Most of the cast, including Gugino herself, have to go through the weird plotline. Which, as entertaining as the film is, is bad...to say the least. The lives of ten women living in L.A. isn't exactly interesting. Yes there is a difference between interesting and entertaining. There are some which are both entertaining and interesting but this is one of those films which is entertaining but features a plot which makes you question just why in God's name are you watching this. Because its fun to watch. It kills time and offers some good laughs. Which should crack you up. No matter what gender you are.

Though the supposed "emotional dimensions" aren't really noticeable you can tell that they at least tried to give the film some emotional depth. Those teary subject matters may not have come out directly but they are there. You just have to sniff though it all. Bottom line is the Gutierrez did an alright job in bringing his script to the big screen. While it offers plenty of laughs and enjoyable performances, the story is to wild and zany for most people to stay for the whole thing. But at least it offers something for everyone. Men get the sexy images and women get their teary and emotional subjects. Everyone wins.

Overall: 3/5