I wanted to but couldn't!

A Masterpiece!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

We thought this movie was excellent. Rosie Perez and Marianne Jean-Baptiste went through similar but different problems as working mothers. Marianne had problems getting her out-of-work husband to take care of the kids, Rosie had problems dealing with a brand new baby that cried constantly! The plot, the acting and the characters were believable and compelling. We loved it!

The 24 HOUR WOMAN is great. Too bad many people didn't see it. Rent or buy the video. The much maligned Rosie Perez gives a knockout performance in the title role, enhanced by her character's assistant, an unrecognizable Marianne Jean-Baptiste ("Secrets and Lies") with an impeccable American accent, a 24 hour woman herself. Patti Lupone as the wicked boss is at her most ferociously evil. Only Glenn Close may have been able to vilify this character as the superb Patti LuPone does (We see too little of her on the screen, so take advantage of this film to see this terrific actress in a deliciously despicable role). A good script addressing contemporary issues, and creative cinematography in real New York settings further contribute to this film's appeal.

I found THE 24 HOUR WOMAN to be very funny. The lack of structure was deliberate. I have a feeling that the author of the above review was a man; certainly he/she has no children. The movie is about the total chaos that the baby brings into the lives of extremely controlled and stressed people who actually think they can 'manage' the situation while not changing their lives in the least. Nancy Savoca mentioned in an interview that 'when others went to the right, we went to the left' she deliberately avoided cliches like the 'contrast between the working class black woman and middle class Latina.' The ethnicities are there, but are never shoved in your face, and the situations apply to all races. This was not a movie about 'class differences' but about the troubles one has in trying to 'have it all', whether by choice or necessity. The problem applies to the male characters as well as the women. This movie is very entertaining and far more honest than the Hollywood versions of the 'working mom/dad/take care of baby' that I have seen. Recommended.

It squanders an opportunity to be about the class differences between a working-class Black woman (Jean-Baptiste) and her boss (Rosie Perez, who despite the cast list above, is the focus of the entire film) and settles for all the cliches about juggling work and family duty. It's directed incompetently, worst than most television programs, with an inbalanced story structure and lazy, imprecise screenplay.