Forgotten Gem and the start of a genre

I missed this film the first time and remember the bad reviews, but have always been curious so rented it, years later. Boy I was surprised! This formula of four women and their trials and tribulations with men and how they deal with them is now familiar, it is called Sex and the City. It even has the ground-breaking sex scenes from the woman's perspective - something SATC was so radical for at the time.

But this film has a slower pace - perhaps to fit the smooth music. It also lacks some sparkle and character definition - we don't know enough about each of their backgrounds or motivations it feels. This is not down to the acting however, which is superb. Angela Basset excels again and Whitney Houston is the surprise here - she is quite an actor. As for the racism - one of the characters makes racist comments and the film is clearly disapproving of this and shows this as part of irrational behaviour of a woman who is breaking down. The same character has to face her own racist behaviour later on in the film. A stylish, forgotten gem of a chick flick which lacks a little va va voom.