The Butcher's Wife (1991)

Don't Believe the Hype

A Masterpiece!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This is a somewhat charming little movie starring Demi Moore as Marina Lemke, who thinks she married the perfect husband. When she returns to her butcher husband's home in the city, she makes a lasting impact on its residents with her love advice, bringing her closer to the real man of her dreams.From what I remember, it's a simple and cliché romantic comedy flick with lesser excitement and lesser suspense. However, the acting is quite good and you may get a few chuckles here and there from the light comedy.The plot is not incredibly fast-paced, but for a movie at 107 minutes, it's really not too bad to watch.Grade C+

For someone who likes modern fairy tales, this is a great movie. Granted, Demi Moore's accent wasn't the best- but I blame that on a bad voice coach- not her. There was actual chemistry between her and Jeff Daniels. If you liked Practical Magic, you'll probably like this one too. Basically, if you want a cute, distracting movie with a little bit of the paranormal (Moore plays a psychic- yes, a real one), like urban settings and slightly predictable love triangles with a happy ending, you'll love this one. This one is for the innocent in the audience- or the people who can overlook one bad point for the big picture, because in the long run, this movie is awesome. This one and Moonstruck are my two favorite 'chick flicks'.....and I don't normally like chick flicks.

I know, I know, it's basically a boiler-plate piece of Hollywood fluff but I really loved this movie. I am a hopeless romantic and thought this movie captured the essence of falling in love and finding your split-apart...er...soul mate. :)Jeff Daniels is wonderful as the shrink who can't help himself as his world unravels and falls apart thanks to the whacky Demi Moore character. Demi is perfect as the ditzy but charming butcher's wife. I really liked Mary Steenburgen in this story... she looked beautiful and sang like an angel. I liked all of the little characters too. The music at the end is haunting and perfect for the finale which wasn't surprising but who cares!!!

I think that Demi Moore was bold to go with the little known Ocracoke, NC accent because most people will probably (wrongly) think that she was doing a very bad job at a North Carolinian/Southern USA accent. Ocracoke is a small, fisherman's island at the bottom of the North Carolina Outer Banks island chain and is only accessible by ferry. This isolation has kept the accent there mostly unaltered since the 17th century days when it was inhabited by British seamen. The Ocracoke accent sounds like a mixture of Brit and Yank, so what you hear Demi Moore doing in this movie is really quite accurate.I also enjoyed the cozy portrayal of the Manhattan (NYC) side street neighborhood life. The NYC avenues tend to be wide, impersonal and busy, but the narrower, townhouse and small shop filled side streets can be quite friendly. It gives me some nice, childhood nostalgic memories to see the happier, day-to-day aspect of NYC life shown in this film.I watch this romantic comedy whenever it is on TV, and I have no complaints about it at all. I find it to be a sweet, feel-good film with occasional hints at magic realism, but without plunging too far into that iffy genre.I feel that all the players did good jobs, and that the locations and settings felt very true. Nice production values too.If you like "Moonstruck", then you will probably like "The Butcher's Wife" too.