It’s the end of the month, so once again, I am pushing through to see as many of the movies on my watch list that will be going away soon. There aren’t too many, but one of the odder ones is probably The Witches of Eastwick, a story that seems to be based around the idea that the devil, using the methods described by ancient puritans, finds out that making witches in the 20th century doesn’t work as well as it must have in the 17th. Featuring a cast of familiar faces, most notably Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Cher as the witches and a, let’s face it, perfectly cast Jack Nicholson as the devil.
And it was directed by Mad Max creator George Miller? And had a score by John Williams? This will be something. Perhaps even something good…
The town of Eastwick, Rhode Island seems to be your standard small New England town. A trio of friends are all currently without husbands. Widow Alex (Cher) is a sculptor and a mother to a single teenager daughter. Divorced Jane (Sarandon) works as a music teacher and otherwise lives alone. Sukie (Pfeiffer), abandoned by her husband, has six daughters and writes for the local smalltown newspaper. The women’s level of interest in finding another man varies from one to the other, but that all seems to change when a stranger whose name no one can remember right away rides into town and moves into the giant mansion on the outskirts. His name eventually comes out as Daryl Van Horne (Nicholson), and he’s actually the devil. Oh, he doesn’t really say that directly, but there he is with the dinky ponytail and a slacker demeanor, ready to get himself some lovin’. He seduces each of the women one by one, and the trio find they now have some odd magical powers. But is that all worth the price? And can they control it?
Now, in old Puritan lore, a woman who was seduced by the devil would become a witch and would do things like cast curses and fly on broomsticks or the like. What these stories never really show is whether or not the women ever regret the deal. As it is, when odd things start to happen around town and people get hurt, Alex and Sukie both decide to distance themselves from their new suitor that the three have been sharing, and it isn’t too long before even Jane wants out. But getting away from the devil is a lot easier than falling for his charms. Good thing the three of them are quick studies…
So, as a comedy, I don’t know that I found this one all that funny. It’s not generally my sense of humor since I like my comedy to generally play more broadly. True, there are many outlandish scenes–Nicholson’s reactions to various curses being put on him while he’s buying ice cream come to mind–but it reminded me of films like Death Becomes Her and Bull Durham. These aren’t bad comedies, but they also aren’t generally my thing as these tend to play their humor, even the outlandish stuff like on display here or in Death Becomes Her, is still largely underplayed, and that doesn’t work for me in comedy.
But none of that explains Jack Nicholson who probably hasn’t underplayed a scene in decades. Something about his seduction techniques don’t seem to work for me. He uses the most grossly inappropriate to win over Alex first. Alex is portrayed as the most feminist and independent of the three, and as the film progresses, she is the one most likely to argue with Daryl over the events of the movie. Sukie’s seduction also comes after a tennis match with Daryl and the other two. Sukie is fully aware that Daryl has slept with the other two, so she goes along with it because…well, I wasn’t entirely sure. Jane comes across as the most, shall we say, lonely, so it makes a bit of sense that he charms her, but the other two were a bit less clear for me, particularly since I thought Daryl/the Devil was more sleazy than sexy. Nicholson still gives something of a fun performance, but I wasn’t really much won over by this movie.
Grade: C+
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