Trifecta of Neuroses….

Sunday afternoon, I watched a DVD and did some ironing. I hate ironing. But I hate that pile of unironed clothes even more, so…anyway, I watched part 2 in the trifecta of woman’s neuroses, “Babyfever”. These movies can be kind of scary, when you realize just HOW neurotic some women are about food, babies, and I’m assuming, shopping. Maybe we all are to some extent. On a small sidetrack, I read a book a couple of years ago called “Wasted“, about an anoretic and her experiences, and the two things that struck me the most were her comment that she STILL doesn’t know any women who are completely normal about food…and I’m not sure I do either, myself definately included. The other thing was that she wrote this book, had this revalation about how she was wasting her life, and then when I looked on the internet, it seems she’s still suffering from it. Sad, really.

Anyway, back to the movies. The comments are from Amazon or Yahoo movies. The comments in () are mine.

Part I is called Eating, circa 1990: A sophisticated modern comedy about women, love, neuroses and the food that binds them all… Henry Jaglom’s EATING! At a fashionable party in Southern California, a parade of women hilariously mingle and muse on their body image hang-ups, eating disorders, and the love-hate relationship between femmes and food.
(Best line: I just wish I could find a man who excites me as much as a good baked potato. Now, I am happy to say that my husband is better than ANY potato, but boy, a good baked potato CAN make me pretty darned happy.)

Part II, Babyfever, circa 1994: This time Jaglom’s real-life wife and cowriter, Victoria Foyt, frets over a pregnancy with a man she is not sure she loves. The setting is a baby shower in Malibu, where a roomful of women shares angst over their biological clocks and the terrors and delights of mommyhood. Jaglom has much to say, but his trademark humor is less apparent than usual and Foyt’s performance borders on the shrill. The subplot, involving Zack Norman as an executive desperately trying to raise money, is superfluous. This fictionalized documentary is one of Jaglom’s more indulgent efforts, but a Jaglom production is always worth the effort, even when he is not in top form.
(This one kind of freaked me out. These women were OUT there. But there was definately a kernal of truth to it all. I remember wanting to get pregnant very badly, starting when I was about 25…so if I had continually felt that way until I was almost 40, maybe I would be as shrill as these women. Who knows.)

Part III, Going Shoping circa 2005: Holly G. is a successful clothing designer with her own boutique. In the course of a tumultuous Mother’s Day weekend she is confronted with deceit, elation, desperation, kleptomania, rebellion, addiction and passion. All this while under pressure to save her business and her family in just three days!
(I don’t know if this film will be in the same format as the other two, with women confessing their feelings to the camera. It just came out in ’05, so I’m waiting for Netflix. I’m expecting a lot of neurotic upper class women, though.)