Sebastian Gutierrez certainly has an eye for the beauty of the female form, but Women in Trouble lacks a compelling script or point of view to go with its curvaceous visual appeal.
Sebastian Gutierrez certainly has an eye for the beauty of the female form, but Women in Trouble lacks a compelling script or point of view to go with its curvaceous visual appeal.
Filmmaker Sebastian Gutierrez writes and directs this ensemble comedy following ten Los Angeles women over the course of 24 hours. When porn starlet Electra Luxx (Carla Gugino) discovers that she's pregnant, her wild world of pleasure and excess is suddenly turned upside down. Subsequently stuck in an elevator with neurotic Doris (Connie Britton), Electra realizes she's standing at a pivotal crossroads in life. Meanwhile, adult film up-and-comer Holly Rocket (Adrianne Palicki) struggles with her
reluctance to go girl-on-girl in front of the cameras by putting on a private show with her sexy friend Bambi (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a therapist (Sarah Clarke) turns to the bottle after discovering her husband has been unfaithful, a flight attendant (Marley Shelton) applies for membership in the Mile High Club with a famous passenger, and a precocious teen (Isabella Gutierrez) realizes that the adults in her life aren't nearly as well adjusted as they'd like her to believe. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
This forced, charmless multi-character movie pretends to show women in all their glorious variety, but it really just traffics in the same old cliches.
The attractive cast, notably the earthy Gugino, tries hard to invest the one-note characters with a degree of humanity, but are betrayed at every turn by the thin material.
The film has already reduced itself to an empty exercise in campy, color-bathed titillation, as a gaggle of women are defined by their sexual drives and abilities without comment from the filmmaker.
Apparently, in Gutierrez's mind, expanding the range of humanity available to women on film means they can be porn stars or prostitutes...and they can be catastrophically dumb...
Too much of Women In Trouble settles for banal instances of infidelity, female bonding, or psychoanalysis when it needs to keep the action going. It's fine to be inconsequential, as long as the charged-up frivolity never stops.
The film borrows beaucoup Almodóvarisms -- multilayered hysterical heroines, a singular homo-ironic aesthetic -- and reduces them to Podunk wink-wink camp and carping-harpy heroines.
It's like the vagina monologues, but sexualized. This has an ensemble of bombshells looking and acting hot. I would say there's a problem here, but it's done so shamelessly that you kind've just go with it. The sense of humor is really unique and I liked the change of pace. The stories and characters are allowed to
shine, due to the structure. This is made with the best intentions, to be fun and not take itself too seriously.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I freely admit that the only reason I wanted to see Women in Trouble was because of the incredible number of blindingly hot women that are in it. Carla Gugino, Marley Shelton, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Adrianne Palicki, Cameron Richardson...do I really need to continue? I had little interest in whatever the
movie was supposed to be "about", per se, I just wanted to see the hotties. And they did deliver the goods. But this is a review, so I guess I have to talk about something more than how hot the women were. This is one of those kinds of ensemble movies where the numerous characters are directly and indirectly connected. It's certainly not up to the quality of a movie like Magnolia, not even close. The comedic elements work sometimes, and sometimes they don't. The dramatic portions are the same way. I guess the best way to describe Women in Trouble, is three Lifetime movies mixed with a rather tame Cinemax skin flick and a really disturbing bestiality story. If that weird mix sounds great to you, then you'll love this. Everyone else should just tune out the talky bits and ogle these gorgeous women.
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