I'm so far from the target audience for Gigi Levangie Grazer's The Starter Wife that it's not even funny. It's a fluffy, occasionally sappy and certainly tonally wobbly movie (or six-hour miniseries, depending upon how you wanna look at it) that empowers as it satirizes, taking shots at the vain, insecure women of Hollywood while also attempting to humanize them. I'll have to check, but I believe that's called having your cake and eating it too.

Emmy winner Debra Messing returned to TV, amid much fanfare and relentless advertising, to play the role of Molly Kagen, a wife and mother in her early 40s, who finds herself adrift after her powerful Hollywood mogul husband Kenny (Peter Jacobson) jilts her for a woman half her age. It should probably be noted at this point that, at no time, during The Starter Wife's six hours does anything un-romance novel like occur. Molly's friends -- the alcoholic socialite Joan (Judy Davis), the somewhat shy Cricket (Miranda Otto) and the gay interior decorator Rodney (Chris Diamantopoulos) -- rally 'round her as she retreats to Malibu to nurse her wounds.

The screenplay, by Josann McGibbon and Sara Parriott, hits a lot of predictable stops, but the characters, or more importantly, the actors playing them help elevate the material, although director Jon Avnet saddles most scenes with a fairly pedestrian sense of mise-en-scene. I will say this, however: For a TV movie, this is a pretty high-wattage cast. Aside from Messing, Davis and Otto, Joe Mantegna and Anika Noni Rose (of Dreamgirls fame) also contribute solid performances.

While The Starter Wife is definitely neither my cup of tea or a work gearing towards males in their late twenties, it's a harmless, escapist piece of puffery (although the revelation that Gigi has separated from her producer husband, Brian Grazer, gives the whole project a tinge of life imitating art imitating life) that should prove to be the perfect antidote to a rainy afternoon spent bored on the couch. The Starter Wife is presented on two discs, with parts one and two on disc one and parts three through five on disc two. The set is housed in a standard Amaray keepcase.

The Video:

Befitting a recently filmed production, The Starter Wife looks darn near flawless in its 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer with no specks, scratches or or other visual blemishes to distract from Australia-standing-in-for California.

No one's gonna throw The Starter Wife into the DVD player expecting a speaker-shattering good time, but the Dolby 2.0 stereo track does provide a clean, clear aural experience that replicates dialogue and score with excellent fidelity. Optional English subtitles are also included.

Absolutely none.

While The Starter Wife is definitely neither my cup of tea or a work gearing towards males in their late twenties, it's a harmless, escapist piece of puffery (although the revelation that Wife author Gigi Levangie Grazer has separated from her producer husband, Brian Grazer, gives the whole project a tinge of life imitating art imitating life) that should prove to be the perfect antidote to a rainy afternoon spent bored on the couch. Rent it.