Girls' Night (1998)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

40-year best friends, co-workers and sisters-in-law, make it out of their British working class neighborhood for a fantasy trip to Las Vegas, tempered by the fact that one of them is dying. Director Nick Hurran and writer Kay Mellor combine quite a number of different ingredients here (including illness, men-vs.-women, factory life, family problems, financial windfalls, travelogue and lovestruck cowboys), yet, despite some missteps, the movie is a worthwhile weepy anchored by terrific performances. As the firebrand, ill-tempered man-chaser, Julie Walters tones down her sometimes-brash personality and has several beautifully realized moments; as her "mate", Brenda Blethyn juggles the more standardized clichés of a character with a limited amount of time left (she's brave, she glows, she's suddenly stronger and charts her own course), though Blethyn is very engaging here and works so naturally and easily with Walters that their friendship strikes nary a false chord. Hurran's dreamy framing of this story, with a puzzling introduction, may put some viewers off, but those who stick with it will find a rewarding drama about friendship and love. These themes have been touched on before in films--and true, there isn't much originality or surprises in Mellor's script--yet the bumps in the road here are actually rather endearing, and by the end of "Girls' Night" I was moved by the thoughtfully worked-out transition of the plotting. It's a minor gem. *** from ****

I saw this movie for the first time on Australian TV last night and was really impressed by it.It focuses on the lives of two English working-class best friends, one of whom becomes terminally ill soon after learning she has won big in a lottery. This theme may sound somewhat clichéd, but that's not how it transfers to screen in this movie. The topic of cancer is handled realistically yet respectfully (for example, no graphic scenes of pain or vomiting, etc), and the relationship between the best friends (Jackie and her soon-to-be sick friend, Dawn) is poignant in it's portrayal. Because of the typically down-to-earth British-style acting, you are not left feeling that you've simply fallen for another tear-jerker, rather, that you've actually experienced something that could easily be a tragic, real-life scenario.It wasn't sappy or melodramatic at all, although having said that, cancer IS dramatic, so even it had been handled this way it wouldn't have been a problem for me. The scene where Dawn says that an angel visited her in a dream and kissed her on the shoulder made me want to cry. She seems just like a vulnerable child here, which is what serious illness does to people.Many people in today's society take things like international travel for granted. But for many folk out there, particularly the sort of characters portrayed in this movie, such things are only ever imagined. So when Jackie takes her dying friend Dawn to Las Vegas for one last blast, personally, I found it very touching. Dawn's character probably never thought something like this could happen to her (or that she would win big in a lottery in the first place!) so you really feel for her and want her to enjoy herself. This part of the movie also provides a good opportunity for some of the movie's lighter moments, for example, when Jackie and Dawn become like giggling teenage girls again over an attractive hotel porter! The only thing that was a little depressing for me was the apparent lack of any real relationship between Dawn and her kids. They are portrayed as quite bratty, but as a dying woman I kept expecting Dawn to try and form one last close bond with them, which never seemed to happen. It would have been nice if we could have seen Dawn's kids (and her husband) sharing in her life's revelations as well, not just her best friend/sister-in-law, Jackie.Overall though, I was really touched by this film. It is humble where it should be humble, dynamic where it should be dynamic. Both the main actresses (Walters and Blethyn) do a superb job and seem to really understand the characters they are portraying. I recommend it to anyone to watch, particularly women.

I got a sneak preview of this film at the Chicago International Film Festival. The producers of the film and Brenda Blethyn made an appearance (she is thinner and a lot prettier in real life IMO). Then the film started. Was I embarrassed for all involved! I guess I was expecting more from a film that featured both her and Julie Walters. Instead we have a middle of the road boo-hoo fest with more formulas than a chemistry class. We even get an embarrassing in-your-face sex scene with Ms. Walters that was totally unnecessary. You can skip this one. Blethyn and Walters have done a lot better before and since this one.

Girls' Night is a revelation, a subtle and masterful little film that builds slowly, creating beautifully nuanced characters, and ultimately delivering a deeply-felt emotional wallop thanks to the magnificent performances of its two stars, Brenda Blethyn and Julie Walters. The power between them is so intense, so true and so pure that the energy of it literally sears through the screen.