Supernatural battle of the sexes, from the book by John Updike. Two New England divorcées and a widow, who all have untapped magical powers, make a frivolous wish for "a tall dark prince travelling under a curse." What they get instead is a boorish Jack Nicholson with a ponytail -- and powers of his own. Because there are three of them (with different vocations but otherwise indistinguishable), the action tends to be repetitious, as each of them has her turn. And while it all chugs merrily along, there is a lack of meaningful context (the women's children never enter into it; nothing is made of the local witch-burnings of three centuries past), and a lack of even the most cursory contemplation. What do these women think they're up to? What are they up to? The one moral voice in the movie is a priggish busybody and the butt of some low-down vomit humor. Indeed, the level of sophistication rarely rises above a lascivious smirk or leering double-entendre. But director George Miller (the George Miller of the Mad Max series) has been dealing so long with archetypes, stereotypes, psychos, and such, that he can hardly be expected to show much subtlety. The only subtlety worth mentioning is in Vilmos Zsigmond's peach-toned photography. Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer. (1987) — Duncan Shepherd
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