While most of the scenes involving the inmates were poignant and powerful in and of themselves, the scenes with 'name' Hollywood actors sucked the energy right out of this film. Perhaps the screen time for those actors was critical to this film ever seeing the light of day, but ultimately they only 'hollywood-ized' the real strugles depicted.
Not only did their performances seem over-hammed and straight off Broadway, but given the discussion sessions with these actors throughout the film they were ludicrous in their interpretation and empathy of these womens' struggles.
If anything, this film illustrates the obvious and relevent disconnect between producer/director and subject matter. The ultimate result is only palpable to middle-class, white collar, armchair democrats that think they can pinpoint the downfall of a person with a well crafted sentence or a seeminginly moving re-portrayal of their plight. Time and time again you sense the yearning of the film's producers to neatly package these womens' struggles in neat little packages, such as: "I didn't get enough attention from mommy and daddy."
In the end, all I can say to Eve Ensler et al is that they should stick to doing "what they know". There's no wine and cheese party for these women in prison, and no cast party.
