I found this movie quite Good. For a comedic romance movie. Funny how Demi Moore in her prime did this silly funny movie. it has a deeper meaning to the whole film. I say it worth a watch. I saw it on NetFlix
Variety said this review
A gentle romantic comedy with a distinct 1940s flavor, The Butcher’s Wife is blessed with a fine cast working from a storybook plot. The unpretentious and simple film has a ‘make ‘em weep like they used to’ quality. Its belief in modern-day magic (in a sense similar to Moonstruck) softens an inherent predictability dictating that all loose ends be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction in 100 minutes.
Demi Moore plays a country clairvoyant whose visions of romance are answered in the surprising form of a New York butcher (George Dzundza) whom she marries immediately, returning with him to his neighborhood. Her visions immediately start to touch all those who cross her path, in the process increasingly nettling the local psychologist (Jeff Daniels), whose patients seem to need him far less as they bathe in the comfort of Moore’s future gazing.
Those who encounter Moore include the shrink’s girlfriend (Margaret Colin), a dowdy patient (Mary Steenburgen) with aspirations to sing the blues, and lesbian friend (Frances McDormand), who’s told romance waits just around the corner.
Helmer Terry Hughes, a TV director, and first-time screenwriters bring a fresh, uncynical eye to familiar terrain. Pic’s only real revelation is Steenburgen, not for her considerable acting skills, but for her fine voice in a trio of bluesy ballads.
The NY times Review
The NY times Review
A mermaid is a welcome sight in Manhattan. She really stands out in a crowd. Even a mermaid of the two-legged variety, like the beautiful sea-sprite played by Demi Moore in "The Butcher's Wife," is a wonder, especially if she is willing to hand out free advice to every lovelorn person she meets. There are many such people in this new-age romantic comedy, and all are enchanted by sweet, guileless Marina (Ms. Moore), with her long, flowing locks and her magical powers. Audiences will be, too.
Ordinarily a lot more hard-boiled, Ms. Moore comfortably inhabits the role of a country clairvoyant from a tiny island off the North Carolina coast. This place is presented as a rustic paradise in the film's swift, confidently staged prologue, a sequence filled with omens that persuade Marina she must fall in love with a fisherman who appears on her shores. "My Adonis, my Poseidon -- no, my Zeus!" she declares to the plump, understandably perplexed Leo Lemke (George Dzundza), who happens to be a butcher from New York City. They are married that very same day and Marina immediately follows Leo home to the kind of safe, clean, neighborly Greenwich Village block that is every bit as fanciful as Marina's original home.
"What a leap I made, from my little island to his!" Marina exclaims as the film takes its first look at New York. But the transition proves to be less drastic than it could have been, since Marina retains some of her country habits, like walking barefoot and wandering around at night in a diaphanous gown. Installed in the butcher shop as her husband's partner, she immediately begins to have an effect on the neighborhood by handing out free meat to nice people, having orders prepared before anyone asks for them, and seeming to know an awful lot about the problems of everyone who comes in.
This last gift of Marina's poses particular problems for Dr. Alex Tremor (Jeff Daniels), the local psychiatrist, and such a confirmed rationalist that he wears a T-shirt quoting Plato. Dr. Tremor feels his practice slipping away under Marina's more soothing influence, and he is clearly worried. "A woman as intelligent and insightful as you doesn't need a clairvoyant to tell her how to live her life," he tells the frumpy Stella (Mary Steenburgen), a schoolmarm who has just been encouraged by Marina to try to sing like Bessie Smith. "That's why we're here." But Stella starts singing all the same.
"The Butcher's Wife," written by Ezra Litwak and Marjorie Schwartz and directed by Terry Hughes (one of whose principal credits is directing "The Golden Girls" on television), eventually bogs down in plot mechanics once Marina has launched her lonely neighbors on their searches for one another. Too much of the film is spent matching up lovers who must almost literally get their stars uncrossed in order to find happiness. But a lot of it is enjoyably buoyant, even when it's several shades too broad. The delicately funny Ms. Steenburgen -- who sings very nicely, incidentally, once she finally takes off those glasses and puts that white camellia in her hair -- should not have had to grapple with an exaggerated New York accent to manage this role.
The film's earnestness about Marina's magical abilities is such that its press kit includes a four-page interview with the real psychic who helped to coach Ms. Moore. But none of that translates into anything overbearing, and most of the film sustains a light comic tone. Mr. Daniels, as the doctor who is alternately exasperated and entranced by Marina, makes himself comically and convincingly frazzled in her presence.
Mr. Dzundza is also good, especially when beaming at Ms. Steenburgen (Leo keeps a framed photo of Bessie Smith in his apartment and he, too, loves the blues). Christopher Durang appears briefly as a psychiatric patient, and in the background of one scene gets to do what many such patients have doubtless dreamed of: furtively trying on the decorative tribal mask that hangs on the doctor's wall.
Frances McDormand has some nice moments as a clothing store proprietor who has never seen a customer like the barefoot Marina with her butcher's apron and her beatific smile. Ms. Moore herself, speaking in a thick twang and wearing a wig that risks looking ridiculous, seems so utterly sure of her character that her confidence is contagious. The film gets a lot further on sheer self-assurance than on either sense or style.
"The Butcher's Wife" is helped visually by Frank Tidy's lively cinematography, Charles Rosen's cosy production design, Theadora Van Runkle's soft, flowing costumes and Bald Head Island, N.C., a place that shares Marina's magical glow.
"The Butcher's Wife" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes sexual references and mild profanity. The Butcher's Wife
Directed by Terry Hughes; written by Ezra Litwak and Marjorie Schwartz; director of photography, Frank Tidy; edited by Don Cambern; music by Michael Gore; production designer, Charles Rosen; produced by Wallis Nicita and Lauren Lloyd; released by Paramount Pictures. Running time: 104 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. Marina . . . Demi Moore Alex . . . Jeff Daniels Leo . . . George Dzundza Stella . . . Mary Steenburgen Grace . . . Frances McDormand Mr. Liddle . . . Christopher Durang
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