Film Review: Steel Magnolias

Director: Herbert Ross

Steel Magnolias is a 1989 American comedy-drama directed by Herbert Ross. It is the film adaptation of Robert Harling's 1987 play of the same name about the bond a group of women share. The film follows a group of six very different women from a small town in rural Louisiana, Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah), a recent beauty school graduate, is hired by Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton) to work in her home-based beauty salon. M'Lynn Eatenton (Sally Field) and her daughter, Shelby (Julia Roberts), arrive at Truvy's to prepare for Shelby's wedding which is taking place later that day. With Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis) and the hostile Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley McLaine) arriving later for the wedding preparations

The group of Women chatting

Its an entirely female dominated film with men very much secondary to everything that happens. The strong women of Louisiana, although some of them come off as more Hollywood than Louisiana, spend their time discussing the key topics of the day and sharing cutting criticisms mostly about other people. Whilst there are some funny lines, especially where Ouiser Boudreaux is concerned, there just isn't enough throughout the film for it to work on a comedic level. The script is ambitious in being able to entertain you for the majority of the film but falls well short.

The drama itself ramps up in the second half and produces an interesting lead into towards the final scenes, which just dragged on towards the conclusion. Whilst it is slightly predictable what will happen this doesn't necessarily detract from the film as much as other elements. The brushing aside of husband Jackson (Dylan McDermott) was quite bewildering for example. It has some good ideas but at times these become lost and confused, overall it just didn't entertain me with its humour or blow me away with is emotional drama.

1.5/4 Capable drama gets bogged down in over ambitious script