Of the best...
MELTDOWN COMEDIES
1 PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980)
THIS Goldie Hawn favourite sets the standard for meltdown comedies. She plays a rich and pampered socialite called Judy Benjamin who enlists in the army when her husband dies unexpectedly on their wedding day. The film’s publicity declared “The Army was no laughing matter until Judy Benjamin joined it”. Goldie was also the film’s executive producer.
2 9 TO 5 (1980)
OFFICE work for the boss from hell sends the normally super efficient Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin) over the edge when she fears she has accidentally killed him by dosing his coffee with rat poison instead of sweetener. Her fellow workers Doralee (Dolly Parton) and Judy (Jane Fonda) come to her aid and soon they are running the department better than he ever did.
3 EDUCATING RITA (1983)
WRITER Willy Russsell’s moving comedy saw Julie Walters as a working class house wife and hairdresser with dreams of a better future so signs up for an Open University course to find her tutor is booze-loving professor Dr Frank Bryant (Sir Michael Caine). Rita recalls seeing her mum crying one time saying “There must be better songs to sing than this”.
4 SHIRLEY VALENTINE (1989)
PAULINE Collins was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as a bored housewife who is stuck in a rut with only the wall to talk to. She heads to Greece when a friend wins an all-expenses holiday for two. Pauline, pictured, starred in the original stage version of the Willy Russell comedy and won a Tony Award.
5 THE FIRST WIVES CLUB (1996)
GOLDIE Hawn teamed up with Bette Midler and Diane Keaton in this comedy about three women who decide to take revenge on the ex-husbands who dumped them for younger women. “Don’t get mad, get everything,” became their motto as they come up with a plot to take the men for every penny they have.
6 BRIDE WARS (2009)
A WEDDING meltdown sees best friends Liv and Emma (Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway) lose all sense of perspective and declare war on each other as they each compete to make their wedding better than the others when they both decide to hold their nuptials on the same day. Emma tells her rival “Your wedding’s gonna be huge, just like your a** at prom”.
7 BAD MOMS (2016)
THREE tired and overworked housewives decide a muchneeded self-indulgent binge away from their families is just what is needed when they reach breaking point with their “perfect lives”. Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn are the moms behaving badly and the end credits feature filmed interviews with the cast and their real-life mothers.