Twenty-five years have passed since a quartet of good friends graduated from Middlebury College in 1969. They're all quite different women, with different personalities and different goals. They lose touch with one another, even though all have settled in New York City. When one of the four succeeds in suicide, the remaining three reconnect after the funeral. Here they learn that they actually have something in common: each one of their marriages is in trouble.

You know the familiar story, the common stereotype. After a couple has been married for a long time, the husband gets antsy and leaves his wife for a much younger woman. That's what happens to Cynthia Swann (Stockard Channing), the unofficial leader of the group of four. When photographs of her famous ex-husband Gil Griffin (James Naughton) and his new young bride (Heather Locklear) appear on the front pages of every tabloid in the city, Cynthia kills herself. But before she dies, she sends notes to the three remaining college friends: Brenda Morelli (Bette Midler), Elise Elliot (Goldie Hawn) and Annie MacDuggan (Diane Keaton). It's only natural that these three women will bond after the loss of Cynthia.

Over drinks, they dish. Brenda reveals that her husband, electronics salesman Morty Cushman (Dan Hedaya), is now living with young Shelly Stewart (Sarah Jessica Parker). Elise, a well-known actress, is in the process of divorcing her husband and co-producer, Bill Atchison (Victor Garber), who is now favoring rising star Phoebe LaVelle (Elizabeth Berkley). Annie has separated from her husband and advertising executive Aaron Paradis (Stephen Collins), and they're both seeing therapist Leslie Rosen (Marcia Gay Harden). (Aaron, more often than Annie.) Ever hopeful, Annie nevertheless expects a reconciliation. But Cynthia's death serves as a wake-up call for this unlikely trio. They soon decide to stand up for themselves, to demand justice, and to somehow get revenge against their partners. Thus do they form The First Wives Club. Their sisterhood is not an easy journey, though. (Think of the Marx Brothers or the Three Stooges, in skirts.) It does get better when they realize that the initiative could be larger than just their own stories.

Diane Keaton's character -- the most tentative member of the trio -- narrates the story at times. We get to see terrific appearances by actors we recognize: Rob Reiner as plastic surgeon Dr. Morris Packman; Bronson Pinchot as interior designer-to-the-stars Duarto Feliz; Eileen Heckart as Annie's overbearing mother, Catherine MacDuggan; and Maggie Smith as aristocratic socialite Gunilla Garson Goldberg. Most of them help the Club women in their efforts of deception and retaliation.

Of course, the best part of all is the song that takes the women back to their time in college: the 1964 hit by Lesley Gore, "You Don't Own Me." The friends once had a song and dance routine worked up for it, when they were young. Can they revive it? What a soundtrack for motivation! And the tune and its message will linger, long after the final credits roll.

The most receptive audience for The First Wives Club is women who have been through similar situations -- but, of course, they should watch it only for entertainment and for confirmation of experience, and not as inspiration for acting out personal vendettas. This film features feminine empowerment and encouragement. It is funny and real, all at once. Anyone who needs more of the same can always fall back on Nine to Five. Its theme song will also stay with you for a good long time.