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Woman of the Year Movie Review

Woman of the Year is a 1942 romantic comedy film directed by George Stevens and starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. It is a very dated flick.

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“Success is no fun unless you share it with someone“

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Rival reporters Sam and Tess fall in love and get married, only to find their relationship strained when Sam comes to resent Tess’ hectic lifestyle. This is apparently the movie that brought Tracy and Hepburn together as they started dating while filming it. But the movie, although heavily praised back then, is very dated now. You’d think a film starring these two master-class actors would be better, but you’d be wrong unfortunately.

It’s crazy to think that Hepburn agreed to this script, but apparently the ending was changed in the last minute and what we got was one of the worst endings of this decade. This female reporter is apparently a rather strong woman, a feminist figure even, but she ends up in a kitchen serving her husband. It is the type of ending meant to put a woman to her place, but also show that she is a ridiculous human being who is incapable of basic cooking.

It was just so dumb that it soured the whole affair, which was before that rather charming and sweet. The dynamic between the two actors is as lovely as it always had been while the dialogue is also quite strong. Just watching these two heavyweights fight and bicker is always a lot of fun.

But having in mind that this is George Stevens that we are talking about in the directorial chair, Woman of the Year is surprisingly weakly directed, badly paced and not as engaging as a romantic comedy should be.

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The film also failed to properly deal with journalism. There are some WWII themes in here, but they are brushed aside. You’d think that a film about two journalists would be more sophisticated, but it ended up focusing just on the pair’s relationship that was at first endearing and fun, but then it became very toxic. Tracy is great here, but his character is just very unlikable.

Woman of the Year is this very dated 40s romantic comedy that was initially rather strong in dialogue and its playful nature. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were reliably terrific as the main couple. The problem here lies in the second half, especially that atrociously misogynistic ending that literally put a modern woman (Hepburn) in her place (the kitchen). It was both offensive and very unrealistic.

My Rating – 3