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Waiting to Exhale

Waiting to Exhale

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 1995

Cheated on, mistreated and stepped on, the women are holding their breath, waiting for the elusive "good man" to break a string of less-than-stellar lovers. Friends and confidants Vannah, Bernie, Glo and Robin talk it all out, determined to find a better way to breathe.

Movie details

Waiting to Exhale

“Friends are the people who let you be yourself... and never let you forget it.”

1995 Comedy · Drama · Romance 2h 7m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.0 / 10

13.1K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

56 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Cheated on, mistreated and stepped on, the women are holding their breath, waiting for the elusive "good man" to break a string of less-than-stellar lovers. Friends and confidants Vannah, Bernie, Glo and Robin talk it all out, determined to find a better way to breathe.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Waiting to Exhale?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Forest Whitaker

Written by

Terry McMillan · Ronald Bass

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston

Savannah

Angela Bassett

Angela Bassett

Bernadine

Loretta Devine

Loretta Devine

Gloria

Lela Rochon

Lela Rochon

Robin

Gregory Hines

Gregory Hines

Marvin

Dennis Haysbert

Dennis Haysbert

Kenneth

Mykelti Williamson

Mykelti Williamson

Troy

Court is in session

Put Waiting to Exhale on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.