(Every) Woman's Story

Date: December 22, 1995
By Ellen Futterman, Entertainment Editor

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
Submitted by: Larry A.


"WAITING TO EXHALE" Rating: R , language, graphic sexual situations. Running time: 2 hours.

GRAB a few girlfriends, buy a huge tub of extra-buttered popcorn to share, and settle in for two hours of sisterhood on the big screen.

"Waiting to Exhale" isn't fabulous by any stretch, but it has its share of entertaining moments. There's not much texture to the story but its characters hook you, even though what they say is often less interesting than how they say it.

The plot revolves around four smart, successful, African-American women, all friends living in Phoenix, each of whom makes foolish choices when it comes to men. Only "Smart Women, Foolish Choices" isn't the book on which the movie is based.

Together the four commiserate, ruminate and then terminate some of the low-down rotten men who lurk about in their lives.

For TV producer Savannah (Whitney Houston) that's the married Kenneth (Dennis Haysbert). Houston turns in a credible performance as the group's voice of reason, which left me remembering "The Bodyguard," and wondering whether any actress could be inspired opposite the terminally dull Kevin Costner.
As Bernadine, the scorned wife whose arrogant, boorish millionaire husband (Michael Beach) leaves her for his white bookkeeper, Angela Bassett has the most dramatic role. Much of the time she plays it dangerously close to the top, and most of the time it works. She's at her best when, nursing her despair, she meets a kind stranger (Wesley Snipes) and the two strike up a tender relationship.

Loretta Devine is Gloria, the plump owner of a beauty salon. She is a single mom, trying to do right by her teen-age son, Tarik (Donald Adeosun Faison). The movie takes on a certain charm when she and her love-interest, a new neighbor (Gregory Hines) who always seems to be fixing things, are on screen together. As Robin, Lela Rochon does a solid job with the most difficult role. It's hard to feel for someone who takes her clothes off for anyone and keeps setting herself up for failure.

Forest Whitaker , making his feature-film directorial debut, unfolds the story as a series of vignettes. Some feature the women together, others focus on individual story lines.

This works some of the time. Other times, the situations we find these women in do little to earn our empathy. They are supposedly strong, but the narrative often doesn't support the claim.

Bernadine, for example, spends nearly the whole movie plotting to get even with her no-good husband. Getting a job seems out of the question. And Robin seems like a totally lost cause.

Whitaker works from a screenplay by Terry McMillan and Ronald Bass, based on McMillan's best-selling novel. After it was released, some critics accused the author of conspicuously dissing African-American men. The same is likely to be said about the movie, although the male cast members all turn in fine performances. And this isn't easy, given how underdeveloped their characters are. Yet overall, "Waiting to Exhale," is less of a bash-athon than a story about four women friends who spend a fair amount of time talking to one another. Yes, much of the talk centers on men. And yes, it gets tedious at times, although there is a certain familiarity to the conversations.

Still, despite its gaps, the movie has its moments, not the least of which is seeing four black actresses starring in some decent roles for a change.