Okay I'll probably get booed for this, but I love the movie, despite Norma Shearer's overacting. I've noticed this when I see her in a movie. I don't think she's at all as attractive as she thinks she is, and I believe she, as an actress, has been highly over-rated. Sorry, just my honest opinion. :)
shareI love her, and when it comes to "The Women," I'm right in line with her biographer Gavin Lambert, regarding her approach to Mary Haines:
"...Norma gives an effectively spare performance. Warned by Cukor the character could easily become a worthy bore, she brings a minimum of weight to the pathos of betrayal and concentrates on the struggle not to betray her feelings. With impeccably restrained technique, she gains sympathy by never playing for it."
And this is true. Only when Mary is alone with her mother, or later alone with Miriam when she learns Stephen has married Crystal, does she give in to the pain. Otherwise, it's all about not letting Sylvia and Edith have the triumph of watching her suffer.
She imbues Mary with incredible breeding and good manners, a woman who says 'please and thank you' in sincere tones, even talking with shop clerks and her household help. And they love her in return too; Jane is fighting sobs herself as Mary packs up Stephen's things just before the trip to Reno.
Norma herself didn't have high regard of the movie or her work in it, and she was wrong. After the opulent excess of "Marie Antoinette" and the outrageous fakery of the countess in "Idiot's Delight," it was a perfect moment for Shearer to show the control and underplaying she was capable of, while still rendering a character you'd like to know personally.
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Truth is a hard master, and costly to serve, but it simplifies every problem.
Other than a couple of moments that are a bit too much for modern eyes she gave a very strong performance. One of the best in the film and possibly the most restrained out of the main characters.
By the way, there is evidence that people were genuinely more emotional back then.
There was a study of written word that analyzed huge amounts of text - anything from novels to technical manuals and found a steady decline in the use of words to describe emotions over the 20th century.
One has to stop and wonder how many of Shearer's films the naysayers on this thread have actually seen. Judging by the inaccuracies of some of these posts, I'd say this is the only one - hardly an accurate assessment of an actor's body of work.
share[deleted]
This was my first Norma Shearer film (although now that I look at her filmography I think I may have seen her in a Chaplin film a long time ago in a film class).
But she and Russell were by far my favorites in this film.
I don't suppose I am much of a judge of what's good acting or not, but Shearer has an undeniable warmth that is very endearing. I really don't see how any husband would want to cheat on Mary, especially with Crystal.
I look forward to seeing more of both of their films.
I personally don't think she's the worst among this pile of bad acting. The first scene is terrible - I assume it was "ambitious" at the time. If you were talking solely about the ending, I would definitely not argue with you.
In general, what a long movie for such a simple plot.