''Waiting to Exhale'' is a 1995 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by

Forest Whitaker Forest Steven Whitaker (born July 15, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and activist. His accolades include an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Best Actor Award at the ...

(in his feature film directorial debut) and starring

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer, actress, film producer, model, and philanthropist. Commonly referred to as "Honorific nicknames in popular music, the Voice", she is List of awards and no ...

and Angela Bassett. The film was adapted from the 1992 novel of the same name by Terry McMillan.

Lela Rochon Lela Rochon Fuqua (born Lela Rochon Staples; April 17, 1964) is an American actress. She is best known for her starring role as Robin Stokes in the 1995 romantic drama film ''Waiting to Exhale''. Rochon also had roles in the films ''Harlem Nights' ...

Loretta Devine Loretta Devine (born August 21, 1949) is an American actress. She is known for numerous roles across stage and screen. Her most high profile roles include Lorrell Robinson in the original Broadway production of ''Dreamgirls'' (1981), Gloria Mat ...

, Dennis Haysbert, Michael Beach,

Gregory Hines Gregory Oliver Hines (February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003) was an American dancer, actor, choreographer, and singer. He is one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time. As an actor, he is best known for '' Wolfen'' (1981), '' The Cotton C ...

, Donald Faison, and Mykelti Williamson rounded out the rest of the cast. The original music score was composed by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The story centers on four women living in the

Phoenix metropolitan area The Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, metro Phoenix, or The Valley, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the Southwestern United States, with its largest principal city being the c ...

and their relationships with men and one another.

Plot

Four friends (Savannah, Robin, Bernadine, and Gloria) get together frequently to support one another and listen to each other vent about life and love. They each want to be in a romantic relationship, but they each have difficulties finding a good man. Successful television producer Savannah "Vannah" Jackson believes that one day her married lover will leave his wife for her. She later realizes that he won't, and that she must find her own man who will love her for who she really is. Bernadine "Bernie" Harris, abandoned her career and dreams of having a catering business, instead raised a family and supported her husband John in building his business. He announces he is leaving her for a white woman with whom he works, sending her into an emotional tailspin that culminates in the two fighting over their assets after she burns his car, clothes and some of his other belongings, and then sells the rest of his things for a dollar each, and he retaliates by draining their bank accounts. Robin Stokes is a high-powered executive and the long-time mistress of married Russell. After dumping him, she has problems finding someone suitable. Beauty salon owner Gloria "Glo" Matthews is a single mother. Her ex-husband and the father of her son tells her that he was always bisexual and now realizes he is gay. Gloria eventually falls in love with a new neighbor, Marvin King. The situations all resolve themselves for the better. Savannah ends up permanently dumping her married lover. Bernadine gets a large divorce settlement from her ex-husband and finds love with a married

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

attorney who as a terminally ill wife at home, but encourages her to pursue her catering dream. Robin ends up pregnant by her married lover, but dumps him, and chooses to raise the baby on her own. Gloria apologizes to her neighbor for snapping at him when he suggested that she should let her son grow up and experience the world. She learns not to be so protective of her son and lets him go on an " Up with People" trip to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. She finds love while learning to take care of herself rather than being self-sacrificing in her devotion to her son and her business.

Cast

as Savannah "Vannah" Jackson, a successful television producer who, after a few failed relationships, decides to move from

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado to Phoenix, Arizona * Angela Bassett as Bernadine "Bernie" Harris, a mother of two children, Onika and John, with dreams of starting a catering business shelved by her 11-year marriage to her husband, only for him to drop a bomb: he's divorcing her for his white bookkeeper. *

as Gloria "Glo" Matthews, a beauty salon owner & single mother of Tarik *

as Robin Stokes, an executive and the long-time mistress of Russell *

as Marvin King, Gloria's neighbor with whom she falls in love, decides to move from

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

to Phoenix, Arizona * Dennis Haysbert as Kenneth Dawkins, Savannah's married lover * Mykelti Williamson as Troy, Robin's one-time lover * Michael Beach as John Harris Sr., Bernie's husband who leaves her for a white woman * Donald Adeosun Faison as Tarik Matthews, Gloria's teenage son *

Leon Robinson Leon Preston Robinson (born March 8, 1962), usually credited as simply Leon, is an American actor and singer who began his professional career as a film actor in the early 1980s. He is best known for his roles as J.T. Matthews in the 1991 Rob ...

as Russell, Robin's long-time married lover * Wendell Pierce as Michael Davenport, Robin's co-worker and one-night stand * Jeffrey D. Sams as Lionel, Savannah's New Year's Eve date * Jazz Raycole as Onika Harris, Bernadine & John Sr.'s daughter * Brandon Hammond as John Harris Jr., Bernadine & John Sr.'s son *

Kenya Moore Kenya Summer Moore (born January 24, 1971) is an American actress, author, entrepreneur, television personality and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 1993. Since 2012, she stars on the reality TV series, ''The Real Housewives of Atlant ...

as Denise, Lionel's "friend" who sees Savannah as a rival * Lamont Johnson as Joseph, hairstylist at Gloria’s salon * Starletta DuPois as "Ma", Savannah's mother who wants her daughter with a man, preferably Kenneth * Kelly Preston as Kathleen, John Sr.'s bookkeeper for whom he's leaving his wife Bernadine (uncredited) *

Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor and martial artist. In a film career spanning more than thirty years, Snipes has appeared in a variety of genres, such as numerous thrillers, dramatic feature films, and comedies, th ...

as James Wheeler, a civil rights attorney with whom Bernadine shares an intimate moment (uncredited) *

Giancarlo Esposito Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito (; born April 26, 1958) is an American actor and director. He rose to prominence by portraying Gus Fring in the AMC (TV channel), AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2009–2011), a role he reprised in ...

as David Matthews, Gloria's ex-husband and father of Tarik, who comes out as bisexual (uncredited)

Production

Filming

Parts of the film were shot at Monument Valley in

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

as well as Chandler, Fountain Hills, Phoenix and Paradise Valley in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Music

The soundtrack album to the film features exclusively female African-American artists. The soundtrack includes the number-one hit songs " Exhale (Shoop Shoop)", sung by the film's star, Whitney Houston, and " Let It Flow" by

Toni Braxton Toni Michele Braxton (born October 7, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. She has sold over 70 million records worldwide and is one of the best-selling female artists in history. Braxton has won seven ...

as well as " Not Gon' Cry" by

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, actress, and entrepreneur. Often referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Qu ...

, " Sittin' Up in My Room" by

Brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured ...

, and " Count on Me" by

and

CeCe Winans Priscilla Marie Love, known professionally by her stage name as CeCe Winans, (born October 8, 1964) is an American gospel singer who has garnered 17 Grammy Awards, the most for any female gospel singer; 33 GMA Dove Awards, 19 Stellar Awards, ...

, all of which reached the top ten of ''Billboard'''s

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

chart. The soundtrack also reached the top of the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...

and

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip-hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Luminate. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated January 30, ...

in January 1996 and was certified 6x platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Reception

Box office

''Waiting to Exhale'' was a financial success, opening at number one at the North American box office and grossing $14.1 million its first weekend of release. In total, the film grossed $67.05 million in North America, and $14.4 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $81.45 million.WAITING TO EXHALE
''Box Office Mojo''. Retrieved February 21, 2010 Its widest release was just over 1,400 theatres, and it was the 26th highest-grossing film of 1995.

Critical response

Upon release, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Film critic Susan Stark from ''

The Detroit News ''The Detroit News'' is one of the two major newspapers in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United S ...

'' stated, "For all the pleasure there is in seeing effective, great-looking black women grappling with major life issues on screen, ''Waiting to Exhale'' is an uneven piece." Reviewer Liam Lacey from '' The Daily Globe and Mail'' wrote of the film, " tnever escapes the queasy aura of ''Melrose Place'': just another story about naive people with small problems."Waiting to Exhale (1995)
''Rotten Tomatoes''. Retrieved February 21, 2010 However, film critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

positively reviewed the film, stating that it is "an escapist fantasy that women in the audience can enjoy by musing, 'I wish I had her problems'—and her car, house, wardrobe, figure and men, even wrong men." The film is notable for having an all-

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

cast. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' called it a "social phenomenon". The film received a 56% approval rating at

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's consensus states: "''Waiting to Exhale'' looks at life's ups and downs from an underseen perspective -- albeit one that's poorly served by uneven acting and a sporadically interesting story." In the book '' Is Marriage for White People?'' writer and

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...

professor Ralph Richard Banks states that the film is a perfect example of the problems African-American women have in finding serious relationships.

Accolades

Image Awards The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

** Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture: *** ( Angela Bassett) Winner *** (

) Nominated ** Outstanding Soundtrack: Winner ** Outstanding Motion Picture: Winner ** Outstanding Lead Actor in a Motion Picture: (

) Nominated ** Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture: *** (

) Winner *** (

) Nominated *

MTV Movie Awards The MTV Movie & TV Awards is a film and television awards show previously presented annually on MTV. It began as the MTV Movie Awards in 1992, when its 1992 MTV Movie Awards, first edition was held, and adopted its current name in 2017, beginnin ...

** Best Female Breakthrough Performance: (

) Nominated ** Best Song from a Movie: ***

- "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" ***

- "Sittin' Up in My Room"

Proposed sequel

Interviewed in the spring of 2011 on an episode of '' The Talk'', Angela Bassett confirmed that a

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

was in the planning stages, with all the female principals signed on to star, and Whitaker returning to direct. The film would supposedly be based on McMillan's 2010 follow-up novel, '' Getting to Happy''; McMillan was adapting the book to screenplay. However, the 2012 death of Whitney Houston halted plans for a sequel starring all four of the original leads.

Television adaptation

In November 2020, it was reported that ABC was developing a television series adaptation of film. The series will be produced by

20th Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...

with

Lee Daniels Lee Daniels (born December 24, 1959) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He made his directorial film debut with ''Shadowboxer'' (2005), followed by ''Precious (film), Precious'' (2009) which earned him Academy Award nomin ...

as executive producer, under a deal of Daniels at 20th Television.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waiting To Exhale 1990s American films 1990s English-language films 1990s female buddy films 1995 directorial debut films 1995 films 1995 romantic comedy-drama films 20th Century Fox films African-American films American female buddy films American romantic comedy-drama films English-language romantic comedy-drama films Films based on American novels Films based on romance novels Films directed by Forest Whitaker Films set in Phoenix, Arizona Films shot in Arizona Films shot in Monument Valley Films shot in Utah Films with screenplays by Ronald Bass Novels by Terry McMillan English-language buddy films