Waiting to Exhale

Waiting to Exhale is a 1995 American romance film directed by Forest Whitaker (in his feature film directorial debut) and starring Whitney Houston and Angela Bassett. The film was adapted from the 1992 novel of the same name by Terry McMillan. Lela Rochon, Loretta Devine, Dennis Haysbert, Michael Beach, Gregory Hines, Donald Faison, and Mykelti Williamson rounded out the rest of the cast. The original music score was composed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The story centers on four women living in the Phoenix, Arizona area and their relationships with men and one another. All of them are "holding their breath" until the day they can feel comfortable in a committed relationship with a man.

Waiting to Exhale
Theatrical release poster
Directed byForest Whitaker
Produced byTerry McMillan
Ronald Bass
Deborah Schindler
Ezra Swerdlow
Screenplay byTerry McMillan
Ronald Bass
Based onWaiting to Exhale
by Terry McMillan
Starring
Music byKenneth "Babyface" Edmonds
CinematographyToyomichi Kurita
Edited byRichard Chew
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 22, 1995 (1995-12-22)
Running time
124 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$16 million
Box office$82 million

Plot

Waiting to Exhale is a story about four black women who are good friends: Savannah, Robin, Bernadine, and Gloria. The four women get together frequently to provide support, and to listen to each other vent about life and love. They all want to be in a relationship but they all have difficulties finding a good man.

Savannah "'Vannah" Jackson is a successful television producer who believes that one day her married lover will leave his wife for her. She later realizes he will never leave his wife, and that she must find her own man who will love her for who she really is.

Bernadine "Bernie" Harris had abandoned her own career dream of having a catering business—instead she raised a family and supported her husband, who then announces he is leaving her for a white woman he works with.

Robin Stokes is a high-powered executive, and the long-time mistress of married Russell. She has problems finding someone suitable after she dumps Russell.

Gloria "Glo" Matthews is a beauty salon owner and a single mother. Her ex-husband, who is also the father of her son, tells her he was always bisexual and now realizes he is actually gay. Gloria eventually falls in love with a new neighbor, Marvin King.

The situations all resolve themselves for the better. Savannah ends up dumping her married lover for good. Bernadine gets a large divorce settlement from her ex-husband. She finds love with a widowed father who is a civil rights attorney and who encourages Bernie to pursue her catering dream.

Robin ends up pregnant by her married lover, but dumps him, and chooses to raise the baby on her own.

Gloria learns not to be so overprotective to her son. She lets him go on an "Up With People" trip to Spain. She apologizes to her neighbor for snapping at him when he suggested that she should let her son grow up and experience the world, and she finds love while learning to take care of herself rather than being overly self-sacrificing in her devotion to her son and her business.

Cast
  • Whitney Houston as Savannah "Vannah" Jackson. Savannah is a successful local TV/Entertainment Producer who after few failed relationships, decides to move from Denver, Colorado to Phoenix, Arizona, where she is reunited with her best friend and college roommate, Bernadine. While trying to navigate a successful Production career, an aging mother, she dabbles into relationships including an on/off courtship with a married businessman, Kenneth, played by Dennis Haysbert.
  • Angela Bassett as Bernadine "Bernie" Harris. Savannah and Bernadine have been best friends since college. She vents her anger on John by burning his clothes and car and selling the remainder of his personal items for $1 apiece.[1]
  • Lela Rochon as Robin Stokes. She is a high-powered executive and the long-time mistress of Russell. After dumping him, she has problems finding a decent man of her own.[2]
  • Loretta Devine as Gloria "Glo" Matthews, a beauty salon owner and single mother.
  • Gregory Hines as Marvin King, Gloria's neighbor with whom she falls in love.
  • Dennis Haysbert as Kenneth Dawkins, Savannah's married lover
  • Mykelti Williamson as Troy
  • Michael Beach as John Harris Sr., Bernie's husband, who leaves her for a white woman.
  • Donald Adeosun Faison as Tarik Matthews, Gloria's teenage son.
  • Leon as Russell
  • Wendell Pierce as Michael Davenport
  • Jeffrey D. Sams as Lionel
  • Jazz Raycole as Onika Harris
  • Brandon Hammond as John Harris Jr.
  • Kenya Moore as Denise
  • Lamont Johnson as Joseph
  • Kelly Preston (uncredited) as Kathleen
  • Wesley Snipes (uncredited) as James Wheeler
  • Giancarlo Esposito (uncredited) as David Matthews, Gloria's ex-husband and father of Tarik.

Production

Parts of the film were shot at Monument Valley in Utah as well as Chandler, Fountain Hills, Phoenix and Paradise Valley in Arizona.[3]

Reception and box office

Waiting to Exhale was a financial success, opening at number-one at the North American box office, grossing $14.1 million in its first weekend of release.[4] In total, the film grossed $67.05 million in North America, and $14.4 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $81.45 million.[5] Its widest release was in just over 1,400 theatres and was the 26th highest-grossing film of 1995.[5]

Upon release, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Film critic Susan Stark from The Detroit News stated, "For all the pleasure there is in seeing effective, great-looking black women grappling with major life issues on screen, Waiting to Exhale is an uneven piece."[6] Reviewer Liam Lacey from The Daily Globe and Mail wrote of the film, "[It] never escapes the queasy aura of Melrose Place: just another story about naive people with small problems."[7] However, film critic Roger Ebert positively reviewed the film, stating that it is "an escapist fantasy that women in the audience can enjoy by musing, 'I wish I had her problems'—and her car, house, wardrobe, figure and men, even wrong men."[8] The film is notable for having an all-African-American cast. The Los Angeles Times called it a "social phenomenon".[9] The film received a 56% approval rating at review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 27 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Waiting to Exhale looks at life's ups and downs from an underseen perspective -- albeit one that's poorly served by uneven acting and a sporadically interesting story."[7]

In the book Is Marriage for White People? writer and Stanford Law School professor Ralph Richard Banks states that the film is a perfect example of the problems African-American women have in finding serious relationships.[10]

Soundtrack
Main article: Waiting to Exhale (soundtrack)

The soundtrack to the film featured exclusively female African-American artists. The soundtrack included the number-one hit songs "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", sung by the film's star, Whitney Houston,[11] and "Let It Flow" by Toni Braxton as well as "Not Gon' Cry" by Mary J. Blige, "Sittin' Up in My Room" by Brandy, and "Count on Me" by Whitney Houston and CeCe Winans, all of which reached the top ten of Billboard's Hot 100 chart.[12]

Proposed sequel

Interviewed in the spring of 2011 on an episode of The Talk, Angela Bassett confirmed that a sequel was in the planning stages, with all the female principals signed on to star, and Whitaker returning to direct. The film would supposedly be based on McMillan's 2010 follow-up novel, Getting to Happy; McMillan was adapting the book to screenplay.[13] Whitney Houston died in 2012 so the sequel cannot have all four of the original four leads.

Accolades
  • Image Awards
  • MTV Movie Awards
    • Best Female Breakthrough Performance: (Lela Rochon) Nominated
    • Best Song from a Movie:
      • Brandy - "Sittin' Up in My Room"
gollark: Perhaps! The general idea is that we can *test* communism without necessarily dooming everyone if it breaks.
gollark: Idea: implement communism, but only for green pencils, as a test run.
gollark: It's now a feature. A *great* feature.
gollark: <@!257604541300604928> If you don't know, the original Civ or something had a bug with Gandhi.
gollark: Gandhi has nukes.

References
  1. Seymour, Gene (1995-12-18). "Breathing Easier: 'Waiting to Exhale' Role Has Given Lela Rochon's Career a Dose of Fresh Air". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
  2. Braxton, Greg (1996-03-30). "Angela Bassett Reaches a Stellar Groove at Last". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-12-22.
  3. D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423605874.
  4. Dutka, Elaine (1995-12-25). "It's a Big Sigh of Relief for Exhale: Box office: Whitney Houston film opens strongly and could take in $11 million or more for the four-day weekend. 'Nixon' and 'Cutthroat Island' perform poorly". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2010-11-01.
  5. WAITING TO EXHALE Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-2-21
  6. Waiting to Exhale (1995) Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-2-21
  7. Waiting to Exhale (1995) Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-2-21
  8. Waiting to Exhale (1995) Chicago Sun Times. Retrieved 2010-2-21
  9. Dutka, Elaine. "The Money's Where the Action Is; Movies: Big budgets and special effects push the film industry to yet another record performance", Los Angeles Times. May 22, 2006. December 31, 1996.
  10. John H. McWhorter. "Marrying Out". City Journal.
  11. Whitney Houston Billboard.com Retrieved 2010-2-21
  12. Waiting to Exhale - Original...(1995), Billboard.com. Retrieved 2010-2-21
  13. Zakarin, Jordan (9 May 2011). "'Waiting To Exhale' Sequel: Whitney Houston Returns With Forest Whitaker". HuffPost Entertainment. HuffingtonPost.com. Retrieved 5 September 2011.
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