The 14 years that writer-director Diane English spent getting her latest film, “”The Women,”” ready for the big screen was just long enough to overdo every aspect of the movie. Even an A-List cast could not disguise how disappointing her remake of George Cukor’s 1939 film is. The idea sounds promising: a fun chick-flick centered on a group of headstrong gals with an appetite for revenge. Unfortunately, what the audience gets is a messy portrayal of women banding together to deal with the aftermath of their friend’s unfaithful husband.

A few of the characters are charming, but most of the performances drag the movie down with overacting. Meg Ryan, as always, is delightful in her portrayal of Mary Haines, the wife of the cheater, while Jada Pinkett-Smith obnoxiously overacts in her role of Alex Fisher, a blunt, butch lesbian.

In two hours, English exhausts her characters with a smorgasbord of life’s issues: The women juggle plastic surgery, childbirth, teen-image troubles, gender-related career setbacks, unfaithful husbands, broken friendships – the list goes on. By film’s end, there had been enough borderline raunchy jokes and hyperactive estrogen to make this chick want to rip her hair out.