Make Way for 40-Plus ‘Club’

“There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney and ‘Driving Miss Daisy,’ ” pronounces Goldie Hawn as middle-aged actress Elise Elliot in “The First Wives Club.”

But this film, which also stars Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, could be the one to spark a change to broaden those on-screen limitations, say some industry insiders. It upended the nation’s box office over the weekend, taking in a September record $18.9 million.

“When something like this succeeds, nobody copies like movie and TV. I can’t imagine there won’t be some sort of bandwagon effect here,” said “First Wives” director Hugh Wilson.

“Hollywood is reactionary because the expenditures in the creative process are so profound,” said Chris Pula, president of marketing at New Line Cinema. “After ‘Twister’ we’ve got ‘Flood.’ Soon we’ll have ‘Blizzard,’ ‘Hail,’ ‘Sleet,’ ‘Wind Chill.’ Knowing the past, yes, I think Hollywood will rush out to make more movies like this.”

“I think it’s a real victory for the 40-plus female,” said Sherry Lansing, chairman of Paramount Pictures’ motion picture group, which produced the film. “Hopefully it will open up more roles for women.”

While working as an independent producer six years ago, Lansing bought the unpublished manuscript of “The First Wives Club,” by Olivia Goldsmith, outbidding two other female producers--Paula Weinstein and Dawn Steele.

Shortly after seeing a copy of an early script, director Wilson also developed a profound interest in the topic, heeding advice from his wife of 20 years and a former high school English teacher.

“My wife said, ‘I’ve read the book and I want you to do this movie. I’m telling you, the time is right,’ ” Wilson said in a telephone interview from his Virginia home.

The film has struck a chord with audiences, primarily women. After its record-breaking weekend for a female-driven movie, it took in $1.9 million on Monday, a hefty amount on what is usually a slow moviegoing day.

“The First Wives Club” has been widely publicized as a “revenge comedy” and the three lead actresses have done a flurry of publicity for it.

“I think the three of them would have opened a movie even if it didn’t have this particular subject,” Wilson said.

But it is the subject that some say has resonated most powerfully. The story centers on a trio of 40-plus wives unceremoniously dumped by their husbands for younger women and what they do to remake their lives.

“What this movie is providing is a vehicle for taking what could be a lot of negative energy and going past the resentment and on to something constructive,” said Cynthia Whitham, a licensed clinical social worker in Los Angeles. “We generally do not have social paths for people who are left in this way. . . . Being left is one thing. Being replaced is another thing. Being replaced by something in a shinier package is something else again and it’s very upsetting.”

“I feel very validated because this is the experience of middle-aged women in America right now and you don’t need a sociologist to tell you that,” said author Goldsmith. “It happened to me and so many of my friends. . . . It’s not about divorce or people growing separate from one another in a marriage. It’s about betrayal. The deck has been stacked for so long I think there’s a big market for movies that raise these issues in a positive way.”

Whether this subject is a burning issue in Peoria is another matter.

“Maybe this is a problem that exists mainly around power bases in Hollywood, New York and Washington,” said Jeanine Basinger, a film professor at Connecticut’s Wesleyan University. “It’s a comedy, but the media hype is presenting it to us as a meaningful event in terms of women’s lives. I’m not sure that’s the case.”

Indeed, studio executives say the first thing they have stressed in marketing the picture are the comedic and satirical aspects.

“We wanted to convey that it was hysterically funny, with substance,” Lansing said. “While we were making it, my girlfriends would ask, ‘What’s it about?’ And I’d say, ‘Just exactly what we talk about when we get together.’ ”

“In the trailer and television commercials we tried most of all to convey that people would have a good time--both men and women,” said Barry London, outgoing vice chairman of Paramount’s motion picture group.

And did they?

Ursula Brixey, 49, of Los Angeles, said she brought her 25-year-old daughter, Christina Hayes, to a showing of the film in Glendale earlier this week “so she can see what she can look forward to.”

“I can really relate to this movie,” Brixey said. “You have to stand on your own two feet. It’s about empowerment and respect.”

Said Gail Enochian, 40, of Silver Lake: “I liked the humor and I also liked that you could see on the screen women of my generation and see that they’re beautiful and can also make fun of themselves. But at the same time you admire them.”

Not everyone talked of empowerment, however.

“The theater was packed, but I was very disappointed,” said Karl Swaidan, 38, of Glendale. “It had a good concept, but it just didn’t go anywhere. . . . All the husbands were bums. Why did these men leave their wives? Probably the reason people went was because it seemed to be the first picture that had a good idea, that people in their 40s thought would have something to say. But this was so simplistic and bubble-headed.”

Even director Wilson said he had some of the same concerns and considered telling the story differently.

“I thought we were doing too light of a comedy,” he said. “I didn’t think the script had nearly the bite it should. The husbands just seemed like plot devices and I wanted to do more with them. In the book the Annie character [played by Keaton] had two children and one of them is retarded. Annie literally gave up her life to care for this child. . . . I thought we could have done a lot more with it, but I’m happy it worked out the way it did. I can’t argue with success.”