Search - She-Devil on DVD

Wacky comedy

Byron Kolln | the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood | 07/01/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep battle it out in the wacky comedy SHE-DEVIL.Mary Fisher (Streep) is a romance novelist who lives in a pink palace by the sea. Ruth Patchett (Barr) is a frumpy housewife with a bad attitude. They have one thing in common - Bob( Ed Begley Jr) - Mary's lover and Ruth's husband!Ruth decides to get even with her louse of a spouse, so she blows up the house, and frames Bob for embezzlement. Along the way Ruth also digs up Mary's mother in a decaying nursing home, and decides a "family reunion" is needed....!Based on the novel "The Life and Loves of the She-Devil" by Fay Weldon, this is a charming film. If you loved DEATH BECOMES HER you will flip over SHE-DEVIL.Also starring Linda Hunt and Sylvia Miles."

The grass isn't always greener...

K. Stuckey | Port Huron, MI USA | 07/06/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"She-Devil a great dark comedy about revenge. BoB (Ed Begley Jr.) is bored of his blah wife who just can't seem to do anything right...so he decides to have an affair with romance novelist Mary Fisher (Meryl Streep). He leaves suburbia, his kids and wife, so Ruth (Roseanne) decides to show him how bad life can really be. After burning down the house, dumping the kids at the pretty pink palace by the sea and breaking Mary Fisher's mom out of a nursing home, she and a friend start an employment agency to help women in similar situations. By placing the right women in the right jobs, Bob soon learns hell hath no fury like a woman scorned when he ends up with nothing and no one, all because he crossed the wrong woman."

Love This Movie Over and Again

Diaspora Chic | Silver Spring, MD | 08/30/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rosanne Barr, plays Ruth Patchette, a housewife, who enjoys reading romance novels written by Mary Fisher, played by the talented Meryl Streep. When she and her husband, Bob, come across Mary accidently, things take a hilariously and adventurous turn for the wife. The writer she so idolized, is having an affair with her husband. Her husband leaves her and the children for greener pastures. Rather than feeling sorry for herself, she purposely burns down her house (a cue taken by Waiting to Exhale) and sends the children to Mary Fisher's estate to live with her and Bob.

Ruth goes off to find Mary's mother in revenge for destroying her marriage and thwarting her romantic notions of love and marriage. She sets out to a nursing home finding the Mrs. Fisher and sending her to live with Mary wreaking havoc for her ungrateful daughter and adopted family. Mary's world is no longer filled with beautiful dreams as her novels. Her dreamy world is like that of Ruth's as a dreaded wife and mother. Ruth further embarks on building a business that will help empower women and bring down her husband.

Every wife and mistress should watch "She-Devil". Rosanne's performance as a wife scorned hits close to home and Meryl's portrayal of a mistress to not expect a bed of roses and for both to not settle for less. This movie is hilarious to watch as the transformation lives are wrecked and resurrected."

Masterful Dark Comedy Starring The Great Roseanne Barr

Diaspora Chic | 08/03/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"She-Devil is among the few dark comedies that gained popularity in the late 80's early 90's period. It has been closely associated with such classics as Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her and War Of The Roses starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny Devito). She Devil is based on a novel by the same name. Roseanne Barr stars as the irrepressible Ruth Patchett, Ed Begley Jr as her cheating husband and a delightful Meryl Streep as his mistress romance novelist Mary Fisher. The captivating premise revolves around Ruth's plot to exact revenge on her unfaithful husband. We are generally sympathetic with her (or at least I was when I saw the film) because she truly does not deserve such a fallible and inconsiderate husband especially after being good to him and raising his children. Roseanne steals the show as she takes revenge step by step straight out of her list of wicked deeds. The script and dialogue is witty and packed with humor. Memorable characters further enhance this black comedy, characters such as Mary Fisher's elderly mother who dislikes her daughter for selfishly shutting her out of her life and putting her in the care of an old folks home to which she later avenges by blabbing to a sleazy tabloid that Mary Fisher was a promiscious woman. Ed Begley Jr. is quite good as the cheating husband who later tires of living with his mistress/mother to his kids replacement Mary Fisher and takes on a new mistress his own office secretary. He is involved in fraudulent scams and eventually Ruth makes it possible for him to be imprisoned. He does seem to have learned his lesson by the end of the film. You will like this enjoyable comedy with suspenseful and dark sounding music (there is even a section whose notes resemble the Night On Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky and the concluding Elvis song Devil in Disguise with the thematic lines that best describe Ruth....''She walks like an angel, she talks like an angel..but she's the Devil in disguise". Also noteworthy is the strong message at the end which seems to be about empowerment of women..closing scene has Roseanne walking down a street with a tremendous crowd of women.. no doubt women who have taken upon themselves to take charge of their lives and refused to be victimized (by cheating husbands, failed marriages, abuse, what have u. This is a great film and among my favorites."