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WiseGirls

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For the 1929 film, see Wise Girls (1929 film).
WiseGirls
UK DVD cover art for WiseGirls
Directed byDavid Anspaugh
Written byJohn Meadows
Produced byJack Sojka
Anthony Esposito
Billy Blake
Richard Brams
StarringMira Sorvino
Mariah Carey
Melora Walters
Music byKeith Forsey
Distributed byLions Gate Entertainment
Release date
Running time
93 minutes
LanguageEnglish
Box office$11 million

WiseGirls is a 2002 crime drama film directed by David Anspaugh and starring Mira Sorvino, Mariah Carey and Melora Walters. The film centres around Meg Kennedy (Mira Sorvino), a medical school nurse who gets a part time job as a waitresses working at a restaurant. Befriending other waitresses, Kate (Melora Walters) and Raychel (Mariah Carey), Meg slowly learns that the restaurant is run by mobsters and she delves deeper into their dangerous world.

The film premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and was released straight to video and did not receive a theatrical release. Upon release, the film was received with negative reviews and panned by critics. Reviewers were highly disappointed with the film's stereotyping of Italian culture. Despite this response, Carey's role was received with much higher praise, with some critics calling it a comeback after her film, Glitter.[a]

Plot

Returning from Missouri as a medical school graduate, Meg Kennedy (Mira Sorvino) moves to Staten Island, New York City, staying with her grandmother due to not having found a place for herself. With the recommendation of Mrs. Saladino, a woman who looks after Meg's grandmother, Meg takes work at an Italian restaurant, run by Gio Esposito (Joseph Siravo). At first, Meg makes mistakes and fails to live up to Esposito's expectations. However, she proves her worth by saving the life of the restaurant owner, Mr. Santalino (Arthur J. Nascarella), after he takes a shot to the nose. Meg becomes a well known waitress by the restaurant's customers and saves enough money from her tips to buy her own apartment.

Meg befriends two other waitresses including Kate (Melora Walters), who aspires to be a Broadway star, and Raychel (Mariah Carey), an outspoken, brassy women. The three become close friends making a pact to meet once a year at a particular bar. Meg also opens up to them about recent loss of her fiancé. Despite this, Meg becomes aware that the restaurant is not only mob-owned, but also a front for drug-dealing operations of which Raychel and possibly Kate appear to be aware. Struggling to pull her life together, Meg finds it harder to accept monetary tokens from Mr. Santalino, while also fending off the romantic attentions of his son, Frankie (Christian Maelenen).

Things come to a breaking point when Esposito drunkenly punches Meg in the face. Mr. Santalino and Frankie kills Esposito while Meg watches in horror. Frankie forces Meg at gunpoint to cut Esposito's body up into little pieces so they can dispose of his body in a meat grinder. Meg later tells Kate everything that happened and lets her know that she plans on leaving town. Kate tries to stop her but in the process reveals that she is actually an undercover police officer and that she had recorded everything Meg said. The police then tap Meg's necklace and put her back undercover at the restaurant, hoping that Mr. Santalino or Frankie will confess to the murder of Esposito.

That night, during her shift, Meg pretends to have a headache and goes to get an aspirin from Frankie but fails to get a confession from him. Meg tries to warn Raychel, who was promoted to manager, to get out of the restaurant before the police come but is interrupted by Frankie and his drinking friends. Meg later sees Mr. Santalino, and gets a confession out of him. Meg thanks him for his heroics and he subsequently promises to do what he did to Esposito to any other man who lays a finger on her. However, in the process, Mr. Santalino notices Kate watching and he rips Meg's necklace off, horrified at her betrayal. In a gun fight, Kate shoots Frankie dead while she is also shot. Meg attempts to save Kate's life but Mr. Santalino drags her away and attempts to shoot her. Before he can do so, Raychel shoots him dead but she is consequently arrested. Meg tries to use a knife to save Kate's lungs from filing up with blood, but is ultimately shot by Kate's partner who realises too late that she saved her.

A year later, Raychel lays flowers at Meg's gravestone. Kate, who survived thanks to Meg, visits Raychel at the bar the friends made a pact to meet every year. Kate lets Raychel know that she was the reason she got off on probation. Kate then reveals Meg, who is alive and well and Meg jokes that she'd have to kill Raychel if she told her how she survived. The three friends share a drink together and express their adoration for each other.

Cast

  • Mira Sorvino as Meg Kennedy
  • Mariah Carey as Raychel
  • Melora Walters as Kate
  • Arthur J. Nascarella as Mr. Santalino
  • Joseph Siravo as Gio Esposito
  • Christian Maelen as Frankie Santalino
  • Saul Stein as Umberto
  • Anthony Alessandro as Lorenzo
  • Louis Di Bianco as Deluca
  • Dax Ravina as Tony
  • Karen Giordano as Angela Fontaine
  • Michael Egan as Joey Jr.
  • Tina Bruno as Mrs. Saladino
  • Isa Thomas as Grandmother Nell

Production

Mira Sorvino (pictured) received mixed reviews for her performance as Meg with comparisons made to her Academy Award winning performance in Mighty Aphrodite.

In 2000,[2] American singer Mariah Carey began working on a film and soundtrack project titled All That Glitters and signed a $100 million dollar deal with Virgin Records.[3] During production for the film, which was retitled as Glitter, Carey was also working on another film entitled WiseGirls.[4][5] Following commencement for Glitter and the release of the soundtrack's lead single "Loverboy", Carey embarked on a short promotional campaign for the song but was stopped short due to Carey being hospitalized, citing "extreme exhaustion" and a "physical and emotional breakdown".[6] Production and promotion for Glitter and WiseGirls came to a halt and both films received a "publicity boost".[4] Virgin Records commented on Carey's hospitalisation stating that,

"Mariah is looking forward to being able to participate in both her album and movie projects [...] She has been making great recovery progress, and continues to grow stronger every day. Virgin Music Worldwide continues to give its absolute commitment and support to Mariah on every level".[7]

Producer Anthony Esposito also stated that "when he spent time with Carey during the WiseGirls shoot, it was clear she had been pushing herself to the limit. After a day of shooting on the film, he says Carey would often just keep on working into the night".[8] Released in 2001, Glitter met to negative reviews and was called one of the worst films ever made.[9][10][11] Carey subsequently parted ways with Virgin Records.[12]

Controversy

During production for WiseGirls, rumours surfaced of a feud and physical altercation between Carey and Mira Sorvino, the lead actress of the film.[4] Tabloids reported that Carey started the fight by throwing a salt shaker at Sorvino.[4] Both Carey and Sorvino's publicists acknowledged that "words were exchanged" between the two after Carey was late to set but Sorvino's publicists also acknowledge that "the incident was ridiculously blown up and never turned physical".[8] A People article which had quoted WiseGirls producer Billy Blake, stated that the two had "wrestled to the floor".[8] Blake issued a statement denying knowledge of the incident saying that, he did not "have firsthand information of any altercation between Mariah Carey and Mira Sorvino as [he] was not on the set that day".[8] After Carey was hospitalised, Sorvino stated that,

"We had one verbal argument, one day [...] but there was no physicality whatsoever — as if you could really imagine me rolling on the ground and pulling her hair out, as the National Enquirer said [...] I'm very sorry for the recent troubles that she's experiencing. I think she'll come out of it fine. She's a very smart person".[4]

In 2018, Sorvino confirmed on Twitter that Carey did "throw a salt shaker over [her] head" but there was "no wrestling or physical contact".[13]

Promotion and release

For WiseGirls, Carey appeared on MTV Italy and Entertainment Tonight among other channels to promote the film. Carey, Sorvino and Melora Walters were present at the film's premiere in January. The film did not receive any theatrical release and instead premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.[12] There were technical problems which caused a repeated sound glitch at the premiere.[14] The film was eventually released on VHS and DVD.[12]

Reception

Despite the film's negative reviews, Mariah Carey (pictured) received higher praise from critics for her role as Raychel than her role as Billie Frank in the 2001 film, Glitter.[15]

Critical reception

Upon release, the film received mixed to negative reviews and criticism for its stereotyping of Italian culture.[16] David Rooney, writer for Variety praised Anspaugh's role as the director, saying the film was "directed with very conventional efficiency" and that "the drama's script keeps enough surprises up its sleeve to remain entertaining. Its themes of female bonding and friendship suggest a theatrical target of young women, with a more solid afterlife in ancillary".[14] He also praised Sorvino's role as Meg saying that she "ably conveys [her] transition".[14] Fox News also criticised David Anspaugh's "extremely misguided mob movie" saying that even Carey could not save the "awful, terrible mob stereotypical movie that pales considerably next to The Sopranos and The Godfather".[16] Sorvino's father, American actor Paul Sorvino, also commented on the Italian-American stereotyping in films.[16] Fox News went on to say that the film "raises just about every crude Mafia reference it can think of — is guilty of just that. Nearly every word out of Carey's mouth is the f-word".[16]

The Hollywood Reporter writer Kirk Honeycutt stated that in the film, "Anspaugh goes for a lively surface but one with a strong emotional undertow".[17] He went on to sat that "WiseGirls can't help suffering a bit from overfamiliarity [...] but Anspaugh and his actors bring enough vigor to the enterprise that the film comes off as a well-done genre piece rather than yesterday's leftovers".[17]

Mariah Carey's role

Despite the film's negative reviews, Carey's performance as Raychel was given favourable reviews in comparison to her role in the 2001 film Glitter.[15][12][14][16][17][18] Rooney stated that Carey's "second time out as an actress proves luckier than the first [...] downsizing from her disastrous debut headliner "Glitter" to a more modest co-starring role with charm and relaxed assurance".[14] His biggest praise was for Carey saying "by far the most engaging performance [was] Carey, giving trash-talking, husky-voiced Raychel plenty of heart as well as chutzpah and sexy attitude".[14] Producer, Anthony Esposito, stated that he "had such a great experience with Mariah Carey on Wisegirls that [he] wanted to make another film with her".[12] Esposito went on to say that Carey's "performance in WiseGirls is outstanding, with reviews from Sundance praising her work [and that given] the right role, the depth of Mariah's performance will make everyone take notice of her great acting ability".[12] Fox News also praised Carey's role saying she had found her "forte [...] and now it's her handlers' turn to find more roles like this — wisecracking, world-weary, street-savvy people".[16]

Carey responded to the films reception, saying that "Sometimes you have to go through difficult stuff, either to learn a lesson or maybe reconnect with something that has slipped away a bit. But that's how life is. You may keep getting hit, but you have to just keep on standing up again".[18] Honeycutt also stated that "the scathing notices for Glitter will be a forgotten memory [...] once people warm up to Raychel. She's a don't-mess-with-me woman who develops a joyous sense of family in friendship with her fellow waitresses".[17]

Notes

  1. ^ Which some have gone on to call one of the worst films ever made.[1]

References

  1. ^ "The 30 worst Vanity Projects of all time". Fadeinonline.com. Fade In. Retrieved August 23, 2015.
  2. ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (August 8, 2000). "Eric Benét "Glitters" With Mariah Carey, Da Brat". MTV News. Viacom. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  3. ^ "EMI Drops Mariah Carey". BBC News. January 31, 2002. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Mira Denies Mariah Spat". ABC. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  5. ^ "Mariah Carey Gets 'Glitter' In Her Eyes". Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  6. ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (2005-10-13). "Mariah Carey Hospitalized For 'Extreme Exhaustion'". MTV News. Viacom. Retrieved 2011-03-29.
  7. ^ Hiatt, Brian (August 9, 2001). "Mariah Carey's Album Release Delayed Three Weeks". MTV News. Viacom. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d "Mira Denies Mariah Catfight". E!. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
  9. ^ "Glitter". Retrieved July 20, 2016.
  10. ^ "The 30 worst Vanity Projects of all time". Fadeinonline.com. Fade In. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  11. ^ Gardner, Elysa (2002-11-28). "Mariah Carey, 'standing again'". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Indie "Sweet Science' corners Mariah Carey". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  13. ^ "Mira Sorvino on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
  14. ^ a b c d e f "Wisegirls". Variety. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  15. ^ a b Friedman, Roger (January 14, 2002). "Mariah Makes Good in Mob Movie". Fox News Channel. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
  16. ^ a b c d e f "Mariah Makes Good in Mob Movie". Fox News. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  17. ^ a b c d "Wisegirls". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  18. ^ a b "Mariah Carey, 'standing again'". USA Today. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
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