The story of the greatest evil ever known to man... His ex-wife.
Overview
A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.0/10
IMDb: 5.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.20/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 48%
Metacritic: 45
TMDB: 6.0/10
Director
Susan Seidelman
Production
Orion Pictures
Cast
Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, Ed Begley Jr., Linda Hunt, Sylvia Miles, Elisebeth Peters, A Martinez, Maria Pitillo, Doris Belack, Mary Louise Wilson, Susan Willis, Jack Gilpin, Robin Leach, Nitchie Barrett, June Gable, Deborah Rush, Rosanna Carter, Lori Tan Chinn, Cynthia Adler, Joe Pentangelo
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, aggressively camp revenge comedy with a strong sense of style and a memorable central performance from Meryl Streep, but the humor is broad, uneven, and often dated in its treatment of women’s bodies and relationships. It’s worth a look if you enjoy late-80s studio satire that swings hard for absurdity more than precision.
Best for
camp-comedy fans
Meryl Streep completists
viewers who like revenge fantasies
fans of broad 80s studio satire
audiences open to dated but playful gender politics
Skip if
you want sharp, modern feminist writing
you’re sensitive to fatphobic or misogynistic humor
you prefer subtle character comedy
you dislike broad performances and cartoonish plotting
Overview
She-Devil is a weirdly durable artifact: part revenge fantasy, part pastel nightmare, part studio comedy that keeps stumbling into genuine bite. The premise is simple and satisfying, but the movie’s real hook is how hard it commits to its own artificiality, especially in the way it turns wealth, romance, and domestic humiliation into a garish pop-art battlefield.
Worth noting
Meryl Streep is the reason to watch. She plays against type with a precision that makes the movie feel more alive than its script often deserves, and the design around her is so committed to pink excess that the film becomes a kind of visual joke in itself. Roseanne Barr gives the movie its blunt-force energy, though the chemistry is uneven and the satire doesn’t always know whether it wants to mock or endorse its own nastiness.
Bottom line
What lingers is the movie’s odd mix of cruelty and liberation. It’s dated, messy, and sometimes mean in ways that don’t age gracefully, but it also has a proto-First Wives Club sense of women reclaiming power by refusing to center men at all. If you’re in the mood for a campy, low-simmer revenge comedy with a killer costume palette, it has enough personality to justify the detour.
Top Letterboxd reviews
a (4★) · 1491 likes
roseanne: "i have a plan"
*cuts to a shot of the twin towers*
👽 Zara 👽 (4★) · 1058 likes
i think this might be one of my favourite meryl streep performances, they told her she couldn't do comedy and she snapped
Andampers (3★) · 904 likes
While I am anti- blaming the other woman for the affair
I am very pro- cooking the hamster- mixing up old people's pills- dramatically rolling off pool floaties- First Wives Clubbing Ed Begley Jr
eely (3★) · 706 likes
watching meryl streep roll around on her giant round pink bed in her pink satin pajamas is the antidote for pandemic depression.
Betty (2.5★) · 586 likes
meryl streep dressed head to toe in pink in a pink palace with a pink velour headboard to match her pink bedding, she is the moment
1994 · Comedy, Drama, Romance · 1h 46m · R · Curator 4.7/10 (45.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Netflix, Paramount Plus Essential, Netflix Standard with Ads
For the mix of embarrassment, reinvention, and outsider energy wrapped in bright comic style.