Without Men

Some movies beg indulgence form the audience. This movie should beg forgiveness from the people who financed it. Based on a novel by James Canon and adapted for the screen and directed by Gabriela Tagliavini, the story (what little there is of it) concerns the women of a remote Latin American town who are forced to pick up the pieces and remake their world when all the town's men are forcibly recruited by communist guerrillas. They are devastated that they have to do 'men's work' such as cleaning the town and governing the village. The local priest (Oscar Nuñez) prays to God and is instructed that he must populate the village with new men by sleeping with all the women of childbearing age. Unable to perform his duties, he is ostracized. One woman (Eva Longoria) becomes mayor and the women gradually make the town a women's place - yes, even to the point of deciding that physical relationships between women are just fine and clothing is optional. A side bar story that simply doesn't fit is the presence of a reporter (Christian Slater) who is sent by his boss (Camryn Manheim) to get a front page article about the little town of only women. Et cetera.....

The lines these poor actors are giving are so poor that they are embarrassing, but the level of acting in general is on the junior high school level. Slater has so little to do that it seems as though he was hired simply to sell tickets in the theaters. This is a 'must miss' little bit of deflated fluff.

Grady Harp