# She-Devil (1989)

### reviewed by
Jeff Sullivan

                                        SHE-DEVIL
                           A film review by Jeff Sullivan
                            Copyright 1989 Jeff Sullivan

SHE-DEVIL is the new "comedy" starring Roseanne Barr, Meryl Streep, and Ed Begley, Jr. It's about a frumpy housewife (Barr) who loses her husband (Begley) to a glamorous romance novelist (Streep). She vows to get her revenge on her straying hubby, which is what the rest of the movie is about.

It's a fairly dark piece, and although in general I enjoy dark humor, I found it to be unsatisfying. Point number one is that the laughs were too few and far between. If the audienced laughed loudly at some bits, it was only because there was little to laugh at in between.

Point number two: The story is also fundamentally unsatisfying because it is unsympathetic. While Barr's character was certainly wronged, the level of her revenge, and the basic mean-spiritedness of the response so overwhelm the story that both humor and sympathy are crushed beneath its heavy heel. There is really no one to root for in SHE-DEVIL, although, in the final analysis, it seems that Begley and Streep are the ones who were wronged.

On the performance side, I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by both Streep and Barr. Streep demonstrated a certain flair for comedy that I had not suspected, although she could clearly use more practice. Barr also surprised me, more so than Streep in fact, because her acting here was quite competent. I did not see, as I expected, any of the "Roseanne"isms coming through. Not once did I feel like she has inserted her schtick into the script.

If I had to give this movie a grade, it'd be a C-. It tries, performs fairly well, but has fundamentally unsound material to work with. I would not personally recommend this movie to most people, but if you've got a hankering for some mean-spirited fun, or if you love Streep, Begley, or Barr, then give it a go. But try to hit it at a bargain.

    --Jeffrey A. Sullivan                | Senior Systems Programmer
    jas@venera.isi.edu                | Information Sciences Institute
    jas@isi.edu   DELPHI: JSULLIVAN        | University of Southern California

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