Movies: 'Waiting To Exhale' Review

Date: December 22, 1995
By Eleanor Ringel, Film Editor

From The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Submitted by: Larry A.


"Waiting to Exhale" * * * 1/2
Starring Angela Bassett and Whitney Houston. Directed by Forest Whitaker. Rated R for sex, language and adult themes. At metro theaters. Ratings range from one to four stars.

THE VERDICT An expert ensemble cast and an understanding director make this adaptation of Terry McMillan's best-seller shine. Whitaker, 'Exhale' ensemble make magic

After this fall's suffocating trio of so-called sisterhood flicks, "Waiting to Exhale" is a breath of fresh air.

Based on Terry McMillan's best seller and bracingly directed by Forest Whitaker (better known as an actor in "Bird" and "The Crying Game"), the movie manages to be completely up-to-date while simultaneously harking back to the glossy Oh Men! melodramas of the '40s and '50s.

The difference is that these four women whose men have or haven't done 'em wrong are African-American. And, yet, that's only a surface difference. The romantic problems they face go beyond skin color and, often, beyond gender. After all, a love story from hell is a love story from hell; the lies and manipulations may take on different hues, but the sense of "been there, done that" doesn't.

The picture covers a year, from one New Year's Eve to the next. First we meet Savannah (Whitney Houston), newly arrived in Phoenix and reluctantly - but hopefully - dolling herself up for a blind date: "Some party this guy's voice invited my answering machine to."

Savannah's real problem is that she's hung up on men in general for a sense of self-worth and on one man in particular, a very married old flame (Dennis Haysbert) who won't stay out of her life.

Next, there's Bernadine (Angela Bassett), who's willingly spent 11 years of her life being "background" to her buppie husband's (Michael Beach) "foreground." He picks New Year's Eve to tell her that he's leaving her and the kids for his white secretary. When he asks patronizingly, "Would it be better if she were black?" she snaps back, "No, it would be better if you were black."

Then there's Robin (Lela Rochon), a prime candidate for the talk- show circuit under the topic Smart Women/Foolish Choices. She's bright, beautiful, successful at her job and inexplicably attracted to pretty-boy hustlers who mistreat her (Whitaker even gives her a perverse balcony scene a la "Romeo and Juliet" with the theme from the Zeffirelli movie playing in the background).

Finally, there's Gloria (Loretta Devine), an overweight, under- confident single mom with a teenage son she dotes on and not much else going on in her life. Then a good-looking widower (Gregory Hines) moves in across the street ...

Working from a briskly paced script by McMillan and Ron Bass ("The Joy Luck Club"), Whitaker shrewdly gives his performers all the breathing room they need. He doesn't treat the material like a literary masterpiece nor does he present it as a seminal treatise on The State of Black Women in '90s America. Rather, he uses McMillan's reader-friendly four-pronged saga as a showcase for four extremely likable, terrifically talented women.

What works best in "Waiting to Exhale" are small things. Like the way an on-her-own Houston is shunned by the other women at a table when she tries to join them and their dates. Or the way Devine gets all bubbly and girlish around the easy-going Hines. A hilarious sex scene between Rochon and a roly-poly partner, Wendell Pierce, is deftly handled by both performers.

As for Bassett, her fierce, fiercely wounded portrayal is likely to be the Oscar nominee among the group. The best part of her performance is how cannily she shows us that Bernadine doesn't really know whom to be angrier with - her spineless user of a husband or herself for letting him get away with it for so long.

There's been a lot of talk about the male-bashing in "Exhale." A lot more than there's been about the female-bashing/female invisibility in "Heat" or "Casino" or "The Crossing Guard" or about 80 percent of the movies released this year.

That's probably to be expected. But keep in mind, the movie is more than an emasculation frenzy. Yes, most of the men are jerks, but there are some good guys, too, like Hines and Wesley Snipes in a brief role as a stranger who tries to buy a wary Bernadine a drink at a hotel bar.

Think of it this way: If you're planning to take your man to "Waiting to Exhale," simply ask yourself, is he man enough to take it?

Forest Whitaker is. And he's man enough to dish it out, too.