Attractive sixties social drama based on Mary McCarthy's popular novel about eight privileged female friends who graduate from a prestigious girls' school in 1933, and their experiences from the depression to WWII.
The narrative focuses on gender issues such as contraception, free love, childbirth and inequality in the workplace. Of course these are as pertinent to the sixties as the thirties. The group are intellectuals, but this isn't an academic film. It's a melodrama about their social experiences.
Lumet and screenwriter Sidney Buchman do a fine job in telling a story with so many lead characters, particularly as the actors were all relatively unknown at the time. There are a lot of debuting female actors here and they give sensitive, sincere performances.
What seems groundbreaking about The Group, is that it was a story about a group of women which wasn't patronising or satirical. It also began a sub-genre of films about the experiences of a clique of graduate friends. In 1933 these women left college looking for the opportunity to play a full part in society. By 1966, they were still waiting.