Jake's Women (1996 TV Movie) User Reviews (4)

Intriguing But Too Long

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 21 February 2004]

Jake (Alan Alda) is a delirious and delusional writer: in his mind, he lives surrounded and talks with his dead wife Julie (Mira Sorvino), his sister, his psychiatrist, his daughter, his present wife Maggie (Anne Archer) and other women, mixing reality and delirious. He has many unresolved problems and they affect his relationship with Maggie and their marriage ends. Through his visions and conversation with these women, the viewer becomes aware of his traumas and ghosts from the past. The beginning of this movie is very intriguing. Alan Alda has a great performance, but the story, although having no clichés and some funny and dramatic situations, is too long. In the end, I was bored and waiting anxiously for the end of the film. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): `As Mulheres de Jake' (`The Women of Jake')

A little bit of Alan Alda goes a long way.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 2 July 2023]

The ensemble of women in writer Alan Alda's life walk away with the TV version of this Neil Simon play that has him talking to the audience about his feelings, as if he was on stage, and after a while with him bellowing either at them or towards the camera, the urge to shout "Enough!" takes over. It's replaced by me imagining other actors in the semi-autobiographical account of Simon's life, and knowing a bit about him makes me not really have much sympathy for Jake. There's current wife Anne Archer (who has decided to leave him), late wife Mira Sorvino (who died at 35 so she's as he remembers her to be), Lolita Davidovich whom he dated, daughter Kimberly Williams (played as younger also by Ashley Peldon), sister Julie Kavner (who unsurprising walks away with the film) and acerbic therapist Joyce Van Patten, a close second to scene stealing.

The stage play nature of the structure is only a slight obstacle to the film's impact, and that's only for those who have issues with the film's narrative. The selfish nature of Jake is off-putting, and it's interesting that none of the women come off as nagging or controlling or obsessively neurotic, and perhaps being set in Jake's mind does give him the right to be a bit self involved. The spirit of the late Sorvino comes back to interact with Williams as a part of Alda's healing, and its an interesting take on the subject of death acceptance. So there's a few elements of the story that are emotionally profound, but the overall presence of Alda overly dominating the film had me not enjoying it, wishing he would have toned down his megalomania.

Sweet, tender and well-created this is one of the best movies I have ever seen!

[macpherr · 10/10 · 22 February 1999]

Extremely talented and experienced author sentence by sentence one can see Neil Simon's genius writing. The script has rhythm! It is well directed! Beautiful cinematography! Mira Sorvino ( Mighty Aphrodite ) is beautiful in this role, and this is one of her best performances. This is a pre-Oscar winning performance by Sorvino that touched my heart! Those scenes where she is fishing in beautiful Vermont mountains are very touching. The performance of Alan Alda is flawless. He is just a wonderful actor. Anne Acher in her Laura Ashley dresses is very good. Julie Kavner plays this is funny character who wears crazy clothes and does all kinds of very imaginative things. Mollie who is played by Ashley Peldon is adorable, changing her hair does every five minutes because she is nervous! Those tender scenes with Mollie and father just kills' me! Kimberly Williams did a good job also. The music is perfect by David Shire, and that wonderful sound of the Gershwin brothers, (George and Ira) so traditional to American Cinema adds rhythm to the script! This wonderful movie needs to be released, or, at least made available in tape for the audience.

One of the best movies ever, hands down.

[xander91 · 10/10 · 11 August 1999]

My wife and I were watching tv and flipping the stations until we saw a tv movie beginning on cbs called Jake's Women. Keep in mind that I dislike made for television movies as much as going to the dentist or repeating my senior year in college. TV movies are horrible. However, as with life, there are exceptions to everything. Jake's Women is the best TV movie EVER made. The acting level is so high, we were amazed. If you ever have the chance to see this, do it. You will be so surprised. We were. This is one of the best movies ever made.