Searching for Debra Winger will most likely divide audiences down the middle. On the one hand it might very well be perceived as a collection of very fortunate women complaining about the living hell it is to be rich and famous. By the same token I'm sure there will be plenty who will understand and appreciate the objective of Director Rosanna Arquette's film. The title here might be a little misleading (one might mistake it for a documentary that sets out to discover what malevolent forces have conspired to destroy the life of Debra Winger - you're thinking of Margot Kidder). Rather, Arquette's mostly compelling film uses the fact that Debra Winger chose to retire from acting at a relatively young age in order to escape the plight of the aging actress in Hollywood. With this general notion as a mission statement, Arquette sets out to explore the topic visa vie the extemporaneous thoughts of a couple dozen of our most luminous female movie stars.

I have to admit that I was shamelessly transfixed to this film, because so many of the actresses offering their thoughts and opinions have been women that I've grown up with, feel a strong kinship toward and have adored throughout the course of my movie-watching life. The subject these women are invited to vent about is certainly no revelation. It's common knowledge among film fans that the climate of the industry is one that values novelty and youth above all else. This coupled with the fact that it is largely controlled by men who equate financial security with nubile breasts and creamy smooth complexions, and it's not an ideal situation for the aging actress.

The film is a tad windy and repetitve, still and all, many a cogent point is made by these icons of the screen (however redundantly) and in some small way perhaps this film may shine some light on the problem and provide a springboard for awareness and change. And in a sense, chiefly via the advent of the independent film industry, as well as television, there are many more substantial roles for actresses over forty than there were ten years ago. Still, in the world of the Hollywood blockbuster these leading ladies of the past are often relegated to stock supporting roles. The aunt, the grandmother, the sister, the best friend etc. - actresses in the prime of their talent and often beauty just aren't' written for and that really is a shame.

Searching For Debra Winger isn't just about the paucity of good roles for actresses over 40, the film also focuses on whether or not it is possible for them to maintain a successful film career while also carrying on rewarding family and love relationships. Though there is a recurrent diatribe that the film often falls into, there are enough individual takes on these subjects to keep the film from devolving into a off-putting morass of feminist polemics. Searching for Debra Winger stays on the move and is light enough on it's feet to hold one's interest -regardless of one's personal opinion of these matters.

The majority of the actresses that participate are candid and charmingly forthcoming and the dream-team cast assembled here gives the film enough voyeur-power to sustain it over the course of it's running time. On board is an interestingly representative cross-section of women and I'll now embark upon the daunting task of listing them all from memory: Sharon Stone, Holly Hunter, Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Diane Lane, Meg Ryan, Vanessa Redgrave, Salma Hayek, Frances MacDormand, Jobeth Williams, Ally Sheedy, Alfre Woodard, Charlotte Rampling, Laura Dern, Robin Wright-Penn, Catherine O'Hara, Melanie Griffith, Martha Plimpton, Teri Garr, Theresa Russell, Darryl Hannah, Kelly Lynch, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Ormond, Tracey Ullman, as well as Rosanna's sister Patricia Arquette and Debra Winger herself. The only male allowed to chime in was an empathetic Roger Ebert.

There are some obvious non-sequitirs included in the mix, most noticeably Paltrow and Hayek who have certainly yet to experience the sort of agism that is at the heart of the proceedings. Another quite profound and inadvertent point the film makes is the far more bleak plight that black actresses face. The fact that there were only two black actresses involved (and one of those being Whoopi, whose age has probably never been an issue in matters of her casting) points to something that has always bothered me, that being the shameful shortage of roles for the black actress. All I have to do to make my point is to ask you, the reader, to think of which black actresses have been left out of this project? Cicely Tyson? She's probably pushing 70. Sure there are a number of black actresses that are doing a wonderful job in the wave of black oriented films, but few of these have reached a point where they are being ignored on the basis of their age. Halle Berry isn't getting turned down because she can't pull-off nudity the way she used to.

In any case, I enjoyed this film for a number of reasons. It's a fact that I've been deeply in love with many of these women at one time or another (particulary Winger) and to hear them talk about anything is a pleasure for me. Hand in hand with this was how fascinating it was to hear them bemoan the fact that they had so much difficulty finding love during the course of their careers (when here I've been all these years with arms wide open). How I'd love to offer words of comfort. To let them know that their performances in Basic Instinct, Broadcast News, Klute, Unfaithful, When Harry Met Sally, The Turning Point, Frida, Fargo, The Big Chill, The Breakfast Club, Grand Canyon, Stardust Memories, Blue Velvet, Forrest Gump, Waiting For Guffman, Something Wild, Running on Empty, Young Frankenstein, The Razor's Edge, Bladerunner, Drugstore Cowboy, Shakespeare In Love, Legends of the Fall, Panic, True Romance and Cannery Row have all meant the world to me and have changed my life for the better. Yes many of these women have been the object of worship only to be cast aside in favor of the younger flavor of the month, but if there's anything that this film imparted to me, is that these gifted and wonderful human beings have been an incredible inspiration to myself and countless others, and ladies, believe me, we haven't forgotten you.