
American cinema casts older male actors as superheroes or old veterans, while women are often sent to play mindless comedic roles. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg; from Beverly Hills to NYC, where women run domination schemes posing as wives of senseless rich men, it is clear that there is no respect towards older women screen actors or real life roles. The trash producer Leslie Moonves and journalist Norah O’Donnell’s marriage makes me wonder about their relationship in real life, would she humiliate him often? It is therefore not surprising that women over 40 often stay off-screen or exclude themselves, with only one realistic option left, being an executive producer as seen in The Fabulous Four (2024).
In the beginning, you may notice a familiar figure playing Marylon’s daughter, and that person is none other than Sophie von Haselberg, Bette Midler’s daughter in real life.
Marilyn spent time in the very same house in Key West that the author Ernest Hemingway lived in while he was in the process of writing two of his books which is mentioned with such unnerving frequency one would feel that the speaker is being paid for the mentions is an interesting fact. Kitty and Alice are invited by her for the wedding but she does not include Lou in the invitation as they have not been in close contact for some time. Thus, Lou is told an absurd story by Kitty and Alice which is the kind of ludicrous plot twist that is convincingly written by screenwriters with overactive imaginations there is no word about Marilyn. They simply claim that she has brought home a six toed cat that she acquired from the Hemingway House.
When Lou learns the truth about being deceived, she is determined to wade through it this time. Still, it is pretty obvious that she has very deep wounds caused by feelings of betrayal by Marilyn that have been signaled even before she landed in Key West, making the big surprise anticlimactic. At this point of the trip, she manages to encounter a group of other travelers in their 20s that were seated next to her on the plane and without intending to, becomes their vision of a strong woman.
Marilyn is completely in her own world while planning the lavish wedding that she is constantly looking forward to as she does not pay heed to the fact that her friends feel she is a ‘little’ too much.
There’s one of those breathtakingly ridiculous reasons that occur only in stained screenplays. She makes sure, however, that there is a very predictable twist by not introducing her fiancé to her friends until the night before the wedding. But the four are too busy being silly. Lou uses a Kegel (pelvic floor) exercise ball which Marilyn has gifted her as a slingshot to take a bicycle thief out! Lou is out of focus and is daydreaming leading her to mistakingly unfasten the rope to the parasail! Yes, it is meant to be a fun joke that Lou’s best friends secretly get her high. Another scene, which is supposed to be funny, occurs in a strip club where one of the women has a birthmark that she notices while a male stripper is dancing and it turns out that’s the male stripper who was supposed to be a dancer before his marriage.
As IMDb adds, The Fabulous Four has been credited to about 40 producers, nearly all of which are executive producers, which in most cases is a euphemism of sorts. Mullaly, Sarandon, and Ralph are three of them. These ladies are aware of what they can do and they know what is a good script.
The cast does manage to exude some warmth and charm but nothing that time cannot forget. Characters act in the most juvenile ways possible shredding the product of the writers with no remorse. They deliver it well, but only during certain prompts such as when they are singing a lovely moment including a duet with Michael Bolton! At this point we have only one wish: let it be a concert film. Alternatively, as Gene Siskel liked to say, we would be better watching a movie of four actresses idling around and chit-chatting about life’s experiences. Instead, there’s a whole scene of ‘humor’ where laundry is stripped ‘overwhelmingly’ about cool weed gummies, an old woman detailing each moment of her life into teenage TikTok, and characters arguing over who ripped whose shirt off during the making of love and, somewhat unexpectedly, lovers who have never heard of Joan Didion, discovering N.W.A. Where are all the other actresses for which age were these, the same trite formula of women’s friendship is the main focus of every other movie. Trust us, it is hard to believe that these women sleep anywhere but at the bank after cashing a check for this mediocre film.
For more movies like The Fabulous Four Hits Visit 123Movies.