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Passes the Bechdel test

While She Was Out

2008. Directed by Susan Montford, written by Edward Bryant and Susan Montford.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    9 women characters. 8 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 6 scenes out of 137.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for While She Was Out

The film

Della Myers is an overwhelmed upper-middle-class housewife who lives in a large house in the suburbs with her twin children and her abusive husband, Kenneth. Kenneth lets Della know that he thinks she gives all her attention to the twins and neglects her house and her appearance. Late on Christmas Eve, Della drives to the local mall to buy gift-wrap. While searching for a parking space in the jam-packed lot, Della notices an old car taking up two spaces. Frustrated and annoyed, she decides to leave a paper message on the windshield of the old car, writing, "Hey, Jerk. Two parking spaces. How selfish can you be?" After the mall closes, Della's car is held by the driver of the old car and she is threatened by four punks -- Chuckie, Huey, Vingh, and Tomás. When the security guard of the mall attempts to protect Della, he is shot and killed by Chuckie. Della tries to escape from the criminals in her truck, but the gang chases her. In the chase, she crashes in a nearby forest. What unfolds in the woods is Della's lone fight for survival against a band of angry young men who would like nothing more than to see her dead.

Released
26 Mar 2009
Genres
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated
R
IMDb
4.8 / 10
Metascore
40 / 100
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Chuckie 144 lines, man
  2. Della 99 lines, woman
  3. Vinh 43 lines, man
  4. Tomas 32 lines, man
  5. Huey 22 lines, man
  6. Kenneth 20 lines, man
  7. Mary 12 lines
  8. Cassie 10 lines, woman
  9. Meghan 7 lines
  10. Lynn 6 lines, woman
Full cast, 19 people
  • Kim Basinger as Della
  • Lukas Haas as Chuckie
  • Craig Sheffer as Kenneth
  • Luke Gair as Terri
  • Leonard Wu as Vingh
  • Luis Chávez as Tomas
  • Rachel Hayward as Lynn
  • Jamie Starr as Huey
  • Alana Husband as Lingerie Sales Assistant
  • Katie Messina as Coffee Sales Person
  • Erika-Shaye Gair as Tammi
  • Wayne Bernard as Angry Driver
  • Jennifer Kitchen as Parking Lot Mother (uncredited)
  • Melissa Sue Anderson as Cassie (voice) (uncredited)
  • Ari Solomon as Rent A Cop
  • Steve Archer as Tired Man
  • Michael Strusievici as Kid
  • Lossen Chambers as Pharmacy Sales Assistant
  • Sadie Lawrence as Perfume Sales Lady

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 137

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 300
4 to 61212
7 to 900
10 to 1210
13 to 1500
16 to 1810
19 to 21260
22 to 24200
25 to 2730
28 to 3023
31 to 3320
34 to 3610
37 to 3940
40 to 42220
43 to 4530
46 to 48739
49 to 5120
52 to 5400
55 to 5700
58 to 6000
61 to 6300
64 to 6600
67 to 6900
70 to 7200
73 to 7500
76 to 78212
79 to 81018
82 to 8400
85 to 8712
88 to 9000
91 to 9300
94 to 9604
97 to 99139
100 to 102116
103 to 105133
106 to 108517
109 to 111019
112 to 114845
115 to 11700
118 to 12000
121 to 12300
124 to 12610
127 to 12900
130 to 13200
133 to 13538
136 to 13712

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
TAMMI: No, the cowgirls. Diamond Lil and Slingshot Kitty. DELLA: Tomorrow night I'll read you the best bedtime story in the whole world. I promise. DELLA: I'll check in on you both when I get back. To make sure you're sleeping. DELLA: Thank you, Tammi, it's wonderful.
DELLA: You too. DELLA: Hello? CASSIE: Hi Della... it's Cassie. DELLA: Where are you? Grand Central Station?
PERFUME SALES LADY: It's a classic revival of Chanel No.5. We have a wonderful Christmas Special on offer at Macy's. DELLA: Thanks.
VS SALES ASSISTANT: It's pure silk, the last one in our classic black label collection. Would you like me to fix you a changing room? DELLA: No thanks. Not my size.
DELLA: A latte please? DELLA: And a chocolate biscotti. OVERWEIGHT SALES ASSISTANT: Bitter or Milk chocolate? DELLA: Forget it, just the coffee.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 33 are women's.

130 lines from women, 269 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

9 women and 9 men in the cast. 8 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 430. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 49 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 30% of the words (1,004), men 70% (2,390). Women have 33% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

6 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Susan Montford (woman)
Written by
Susan Montford (woman)
Produced by
Don Murphy (man), Kirk Shaw (man), Mary Aloe (woman)
Shot by
Steve Gainer (man)
Edited by
William M. Anderson (man)
Music by
Paul Haslinger (man)
Production design by
Patrick Banister (man)
Costumes by
Cynthia Ann Summers (woman)
Cast by
Shannon Makhanian (woman), Laura Toplass (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    6 women, 12 men, 6 not listed

  • Sound

    1 women, 9 men, 4 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    0 women, 3 men, 10 not listed

  • Other crew

    2 women, 6 men, 3 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    4 women, 1 men, 3 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 5 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Editing

    0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 39 on average. Men: 28 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Alana Husband 24, Rachel Hayward 40, Kim Basinger 54

Men

Luke Gair 11, Leonard Wu 22, Lukas Haas 32, Craig Sheffer 48

Exhibit H: the money

It made 8% of what it cost.

Budget
$6 million
Box office
$498,088

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 137 scenes and 430 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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