# She-Devil (1989 film)

She-Devil is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Susan Seidelman, written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns, and starring Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr (in her film debut), and Ed Begley Jr. A loose adaptation of the 1983 novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by British writer Fay Weldon, She-Devil tells the story of Ruth Patchett, a dumpy, overweight housewife, who exacts devilish revenge after her philandering husband leaves her and their children for glamorous, best-selling romance novelist Mary Fisher.
Produced and distributed by Orion Pictures, She-Devil was released on December 8, 1989. It received mixed reviews from critics, and grossed $15.5 million at the U.S. box office. For her performance, Streep earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 47th Golden Globe Awards.

## Plot

Overweight mother Ruth Patchett attempts to please her accountant husband Bob. After Bob meets romance novelist Mary Fisher at a party, they begin an affair. Ruth, aware of the affair, confronts Bob while his parents are visiting, and Bob leaves her. Angry, Ruth vows revenge on him and Mary.
Ruth lists Bob's assets, representing his home, his family, his career, and his freedom, planning to cross off each one after destroying it. With Bob away at Mary's and the kids at school, she procures Mary's financial records and overloads the electricity of the house, destroying the house in an explosion. She leaves the kids with Mary and Bob and announces that she will not be returning.
Bob's second asset, his family, deteriorates, as Mary struggles with her newfound maternal role, which causes a rift in her relationship with Bob and interferes with her ability to write her newest novel.
Ruth takes a job at a nursing home under the pseudonym Vesta Rose, where she befriends Francine, Mary's foul-mouthed, estranged mother, and arranges for her to return to Mary's life. She also meets nurse Hooper and gains her trust by introducing her to desserts.
Ruth and Hooper start an employment agency for women rejected by society. The agency is successful, and the women Ruth helped assist in her revenge. Olivia, a young blonde, applies to the agency, is hired as Bob's secretary, and starts having sex with him at the office. This causes Mary to become lonely and desperate, which makes Bob rebuff her sexual advances. When Olivia proclaims her love for Bob, he dumps and fires her. Olivia reveals to Ruth that Bob is a fraudster who steals from his clients by skimming interest off their accounts, then transferring it to his offshore account in Switzerland.
As Mary is being interviewed for a puff piece by People, Francine reveals embarrassing secrets about her that destroy her career. Olivia and Ruth hack Bob's computer to conduct an embezzlement, then report this to the IRS. Ruth also mails pictures of Bob bedding Olivia to Mary. Intent on regaining control of her life, Mary forces Francine and Bob's children to behave, then throws an elegant party with her friends. There, state troopers appear with a warrant for Bob's arrest. Bob's lawyer bribes a corrupt judge to ensure a favorable verdict and unknowingly informs Mary that Bob was stealing from her account as well. Furious, Mary leaves Bob and sells her mansion. A woman who gained employment as a court clerk via Ruth's agency repays Ruth by reassigning Bob's case to an unbiased judge. Bob is convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to prison, thus destroying his final asset: his freedom. As Bob is taken away, he realizes that his greed, selfishness, and infidelity towards Ruth left him with nothing.
Sixteen months later, Ruth and her children visit a reformed Bob. He is now on more amicable terms with Ruth following their divorce and looking forward to catching up with his children after his release from prison. Meanwhile, Mary revived her career by becoming a more mainstream author and is at a book signing about a new tell-all book, where she signs a book for Ruth but does not recognize her. Next in line after Ruth is a man whom Mary tries to flirt with. Ruth smiles as she walks down a busy street in Manhattan, accompanied by women from her firm.

## Cast

* Meryl Streep as Mary Fisher
* Roseanne Barr as Ruth Patchett
* Ed Begley Jr. as Bob Patchett
* Linda Hunt as Hooper
* Sylvia Miles as Mrs. Fisher
* Elisebeth Peters as Nicolette Patchett
* Bryan Larkin as Andy Patchett
* A Martinez as Garcia
* Maria Pitillo as Olivia Honey
* Mary Louise Wilson as Mrs. Trumper
* Susan Willis as Ute
* Jack Gilpin as Larry
* Robin Leach as himself
* Nitchie Barrett as Bob's secretary
* June Gable as a realtor
* Sally Jessy Raphael as herself
* Doris Belack as Paula
* Lori Tan Chinn as Vesta Rose woman
* Rosanna Carter as Judge Brown

## Production
### Casting

Meryl Streep was cast in the role of Mary Fisher in August 1989. Roseanne Barr, who had never appeared in a theatrical film at the time, was cast by director Susan Seidelman as Ruth Patchett, as Seidelman felt Barr embodied a "larger than life" persona appropriate to the character.

### Filming

Principal photography of She-Devil began on April 12, 1989 in the New York City metropolitan area. Mary Fisher's mansion is located at 161 Cliff Road, 11777 in Port Jefferson, New York. The house was demolished in 2017; the 30-bedroom estate belonged to Bulgarian operetta singer and actress Nadya Nozharova, also known as Countess Nadya de Navarro Farber, who died in 2014. The home was built in 1870 and was almost 19,000 sq ft (1,800 m$^2$). The countess lived in the home for over 40 years.
Another mansion in Piermont, New York doubled as a retirement home featured in the film. Filming also took place in Manhattan in Times Square, at the Guggenheim Museum, and in New York City's historic South Street Seaport police precinct, the latter of which served as the location for the Vesta Rose Employment Agency.

## Music

The film score for She-Devil was composed by Howard Shore. A soundtrack album was released on November 15, 1989 by Mercury Records. Shore's score was later released in a limited edition of 1,000 copies by Music Box Records.

## Release

She-Devil had its world premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City on December 6, 1989. The proceeds from the premiere screening were donated to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) AMMI education program.

### Home media

Orion Home Video released She-Devil on VHS and Betamax on June 28, 1990. MGM Home Entertainment released the film on DVD on October 2, 2001. In 2015, Olive Films released it for the first time on Blu-ray, licensed via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and 20th Century Fox.

## Reception
### Box office

Orion Pictures released She-Devil in the United States on December 8, 1989. The film earned $3,509,647 during its opening weekend, and went on to gross a total of $15,351,421.

### Critical response

She-Devil received mixed reviews from critics at the time of its release. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 48% of 25 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.8/10. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.
Critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three out of four stars, praising Barr and Streep's performances as well as director Seidelman's "touch for off-center humor, the kind that works not because of setups and punch lines, but because of the screwy logic her characters bring to their dilemmas." Variety called the film "a dark and gleeful revenge saga," adding that the casting is "a real coup, with Barr going her everywoman TV persona one better by breaking the big screen heroine mold, and Streep blowing away any notion that she can’t be funny."
Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised Streep's performance, likening it to "a magnificent illusionist at work. Miss Streep dives into this thimble-sized comedy and makes one believe—at least, while she is on the screen—that it is an Olympic-sized swimming pool of wit," but felt that Barr "is unable to rise above her circumstances. To begin with, she is saddled with a role that is less serious, as the film's production notes put it, than monstrous. It has nothing to do with her weight, though the movie is not very kind about that." Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times made a similar observation, feeling that Streep's comedic performance outshined that of Barr's.

### Accolades

For her performance, Streep was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical at the 47th Golden Globe Awards.