Underrated, well-performed comedy from Fay Weldon's book (previously filmed as a British mini-series for television) about a common housewife who connives to get even with the self-absorbed romance novelist who stole her husband. Some of the jokes have a mean-spirited tone, but it was an interesting idea to have Roseanne Barr play her role (as the put-upon wife-turned-she devil) in a relatively low-key and allow Meryl Streep (as the colorful villainess) to ham it up. Sylvia Miles and Linda Hunt are lively in supporting roles, though both simply evaporate from the film's narrative after the midway point, this due to the film's episodic structure. Ed Begley Jr. isn't quite right as Roseanne's cheating husband--he looks like Streep's brother, not her lover--yet the film is funny and entertaining, if not always right on track. **1/2 from ****