Jake's Women (1996) (TV)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Glenn Jordan

Writers (WGA):

Neil Simon (play)
Neil Simon (teleplay)

Release Date:

3 March 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy

Plot:

Jake is a writer. He is married to Maggie, but his marriage is in trouble. He cannot stop thinking about other women in his life...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play | Character Name In Title

Cast

Alan Alda	...	Jake
Anne Archer	...	Maggie
Lolita Davidovich	...	Sheila
Julie Kavner	...	Karen
Mira Sorvino	...	Julie
Joyce Van Patten	...	Edith
Kimberly Williams-Paisley	...	Molly (as Kimberly Williams)
Ashley Peldon	...	Young Molly
Perry Anzilotti	...	Waiter
Aasif Mandvi	...	Driver
Steven M. Porter	...	Hal
Yul Vazquez	...	Luigi
Hynden Walch	...	Waitress

Also Known As:

Neil Simon's Jake's Women (Australia) (Canada: English title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:PG

Company:

Hallmark Entertainment

Trivia:

Alan Alda was nominated for the 1992 Tony Award (New York City) for Actor in a Drama for "Jake's Women".

Soundtrack:

Oh, Lady Be Good

misogyny free Simon

This made-for-TV adaptation of the Neil Simon stage play is enlivened by a magnificent performance by Alan Alda as Jake, a writer whose marriage is in crisis. Or at least in Simon's version of crisis, since his universe is plagued by relationships that are only real in the theater, which makes Jake's teaching subject `Art begins with truth' rather ironic.

The plot begins with a variation on Simon's earlier autobiographical Chapter Two, where a writer's second marriage is threatened by the husband's unresolved feelings for his first wife, who is deceased. Jake's second wife Maggie (Anne Archer) separates from him for 6 months after mutual affairs, and this time allows Jake to address his condition. The game he plays where he summons people in his life for `imagined conversations', is said to reveal a fear of intimacy. This portrait of the writer as emotionally aloof, who uses his characters for selfless love because he created them, is acknowledged as unhealthy, when the writers Jake admires who `spend their lives in their head' are pathetic figures like Hemingway, Woolf and Fitzgerald. Simon even paraphrases Hamlet by having Jake told that he `loves the idea of loving women'. When Jake imagines a reunion between his first wife Julie (Mira Sorvino) and their daughter Molly (Kimberly Williams), he bemoans `If I can create this, why can't I experience it in my own life?'

What saves the material is Jake communicating with Julie's spirit, and the second act where he loses control of the characters and they summon themselves to cause havoc. This changes the tone to farce, where the character Maggie's presence helps Jake to lose his new girlfriend Sheila (Lolita Davidovitch). The idea of a spirit that can only be seen by one person in a dialogue goes back to Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit. Simon also has characters used as a chorus eg Jake's sister Karen (Julie Kavner) and his analyst Edith (Joyce Van Patten) observe Jake's reunion with the 21 year old Julie eg Edith's `This is interesting. This is fascinating. I can't follow it, but it's riveting', and Karen's `He wants her younger. She wants to be older. Only a dead woman would think like that'. The funniest scene is when Karen and Edith refuse to leave Jake, and his telephone phone call to the real Edith has him say to the imagined Edith `Will you let me talk to you?!'

Director Glenn Jordan doesn't conceal obviously theatrical devices, like Jake talking to the camera as the narrator, his character's quick appearances, lighting changes for their entrance, costume gags, Edith saying `They're your words. I'm just moving my lips' and `I love how my voice trails off', and how Edith and Karen stop talking when Jake leaves the room. Jordan also presents Jake in memory as a 26 year old by using Alda's voice but keeping the younger actor in long shot.

Simon being Simon, there are many amusing lines, as well as a comic's timed use of yes and no as responses. At a party, Jake's `Can I buy you dinner?' to which Maggie replies `But the food here is free'. Karen's complaint about the dress Jake has her wear – `Bette Midler does a concert in a dress like this'. `If it's under a month its not an affair? Every man in America is looking for a calender like that'. `You took a shower. That's what I need. You get so grimy from ambition'. `Anything I should feel nervous about? Depends on what makes you nervous. Answers like that'. `She just made a 4 hour student film of her sitting on a kitchen chair called loneliness'. `I guess sleeping back to back for the last 2 weeks doesn't make this too much of a surprise". `I feel like I'm skiing down a mountain without a pole.. and you were the one who pushed me'. `Let's not say anything more because we'll end up hurting each other. I think we passed that a minute ago'. `Analysts don't work nights. That's when they have their own breakdowns'. `When you wish, you wish upon the child in you. You know who said that? Jiminy Cricket?'. `We make our own destiny. Is that why you're still unmarried? No most men are creeps'. Julie's `You're 56 and I slept with you last night?'. `Can we get off this. We're in a holding pattern'. `35 is a kick in the head. What does 55 feel like? The kick gets a little lower'. However Simon also has his share of duds, including the always-painful wise beyond her years child, cliches like `second wind', `Just because you worked from home doesn't mean you were here', and `I am through with being a rewrite of someone else'.

Repeating the role he created on Broadway, Alda is ingratiating and funny, particularly when employing physical comedy, and supplies anger and tears. Kavner is probably the best at making Simon's lines sound spontaneous, and Van Patten is a treat with her unctuous smile. Davidovitch only has one scene and she is upstaged by Archer's mimicry, where otherwise Archer's limited vocal ability is evident. Sorvino's tentativeness gives her Julie a pathos, which overcomes what may be her miscasting. And composer David Shire uses the Gershwin song Lady Be Good over the opening credits.