ongoing

Is "The Women" aiming to capture the same crowd that flocked to "Sex and the City?" You betcha. And why not? It's the most underserved market in moviedom. Really. Ask director Diane English about it. I did, and she said the movie execs divide audiences into quadrants and females-of-a-certain-age was definitely not demo No. 1. But as she said at a screening this week "No men were harmed in the making" even if there are, like, no men in the movie. (Not even as extras, anywhere.) Now, English - the Emmy-winning creator of "Murphy Brown" - took the Clare Booth Luce stage play and George Cukor film and fashioned something thoroughly modern.

It's set in Manhattan - though some Saks Fifth Avenue scenes and Newbury street scenes were shot here, Boston standing in for NY - and it's really about female relationships. Friendships. Even though Meg Ryan's character finds out about her husband's affair and wrestles with it throughout, it's really about the trust, then destruction and then aftermath of her friendship with Annette Bening's character, a fashion magazine editor. This was a movie that was backed by the production company co-owned by Mick Jagger - bet they didn't play "Some Girls" during the down time - and it cost a mere $16 million, $50 mil or so under "Sex." Will men enjoy this? I'm a man. I did. I like football, David Bowie, art shows and Dennis Lehane books, too. If you're a man, will you? That's the question many are asking, and English is telling the women to bring their husbands or boyfriends along - they will not have a bad time. I concur. This is funny and breezy in a smart sitcom way, English's roots, after all, and has some deeper points to make about the nature of friendship, what matters in the end and what doesn't. Did I feel a little out of the loop seeing no one of my gender for two hours on screen? Sure. But this I can take. I just figured I was getting to look through the one-way mirror for a spell. And I did envy the camaraderie the women share, the bit performance by Bette Midler, Jada Pinkett-Smith's dynamo dyke, and more. Tickets: $9.75. Check website below for times and places.

www.mrmoviesboston.com