Using some nicely delivered comedy, The Hot Flashes features important messages that ring clear. The fun film that showcases some of filmdom’s most recognizable faces plays like a cool PSA for breast cancer and hits the mark without being sappy. The story may be a bit clichéd, but the determination and devotion to the cause is a slam dunk.
The nicely played comedy centers on Beth Humphrey (Brooke Shields) a middle-aged housewife who like other women her age has entered the menopause phase of her life. Going through a stage of PMS that includes night sweats and hot flashes are tough on her, but what’s really got her worried is that cutbacks in government spending has eliminated the traveling mammogram mobile on which the town depends. Checking on what she can do to keep the mobile breast cancer screening truck coming she finds out that it will cost $45 thousand to offset the debt.
Knowing how important the check-up is to the women in her small Texas town, Beth comes up with an idea to raise money. Her daughter Joclyn (Charlotte Graham) plays for the local high school basketball team and they have just won the Texas state championship. It’s the first time since 1978 when Beth played on the same school’s winning team. Determined to raise the money she proposes a challenge between the high school champs and the 1978 team made up of those teammates still living in the area, Roxie (Camryn Manheim), Ginger (Daryl Hannah), Florine (Wanda Sykes) and Clementine (Virginia Madsen).
The cute little indie gets very funny with some cat fights, disagreements, dirty playing and a lot of creative basketball playing. Director Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan) adds some very fun actors to her cast including 3’9” Mark Povinelli (Mirror Mirror) as the coach. He may be short in stature but he makes up for it in determination when he puts the ladies on the court with some cool moves. For Beth’s husband she uses Eric Roberts who does a good job of depicting a man who strays and looses.
The acting by the central cast is very good with Shields leading the actors in a good cause film that hits home. She takes on Beth making her strong, resourceful and determined in achieving her goal of keeping the mammogram unit for the town and proving that she can still be an inspiring women to her daughter. She controls the comedy in the film as the main protagonist with Wanda Sykes (Ice Age: Continental Drift) bringing her comedic game to the plot and the basketball court. Virgina Madsen (Sideways) as Clementine pulls off a torrid and tawdry character that’s a stitch and Camryn Manheim (Harry’s Law– TV) fills in nicely as the team dynamo that toughens her mates in the playing of the game. You can see how hard the girls must have worked to look so good in their performances on the court.
I really am at a loss over Seidelman’s choice to make actresses Daryl Hannah’s Ginger this very shabby lesbian who spends the whole film clothed from head to toe. She becomes very distracting in her awful red wig, out of shape body and very litttle dialogue to boot. And as for being a lesbian, her character wouldn’t probably attract anyone let alone the beautiful woman they chose to play her lover. Just, saying.
The Hot Flashes has been Rated R by the MPAA for some sexual content and drug use. I like that it does showcase breast cancer and the need for mammograms for early detection.
Additional Film Information:
- Cast: Brooke Shields, Wanda Sykes, Virginia Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Camryn Manheim, Charlotte Graham, Mark Povinelli and Eric Roberts
- Directed by: Susan Seidelman
- Genre: Comedy, Sports
- MPAA Rating: Rated R for some sexual content and drug use
- Running Time: 1 hr 30 min
- Opening Date: July 12, 2013
- Distributed by: Vertical Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
