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Four lifelong friends have their lives forever changed after reading ‘50 Shades of Grey’ in their monthly book club.
This feisty new movie for mature audiences housed many big names like Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Alicia Silverstone, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr., and Wallace Shawn. Quite a mouthful! What movie could garner such a fabulous cast? A flick about four best friends in their ’60s who refuse to give up on the fun things in life just because the rest of the world is ready to send them out to pasture.
Diane Keaton keeps her name for the film and basically re-hashes her role from “Because I Said So.” In how many movies should the same actress play the same character? She must be capable of playing a person who isn’t inept in love and incapable of tripping over her own two feet. Either way, Diane (the character not the actress) lost her husband a year ago and her two grown children live hundreds of miles away. They want their elderly mom to move into their basement so they can take care of her before she falls or injures herself from age. Jane Fonda portrays Vivian, an older woman seeking one-night stands with no connection. Candice Bergen plays Sharon, a divorced judge who forgets she was a woman capable of attracting a man, and Mary Steenburgen became Carol, a happily married woman for decades until her husband retires and forgets all about a romantic life.
For over forty years, the four women meet every month for their book club, kind of obvious by the title, while sharing insights from the novels and gossip about their lives. The racy Vivian spices up their lives with ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ as the new book of the month. The older ladies balk at the selection but soon find the world of Christian Grey re-invigorating their mojo, sending the ladies on a mission to find some men. Diane trips over a pilot. Vivian bumps into an old flame. Sharon learns about the world of online dating. Poor Carol finds her husband limping through retirement unwilling to rekindle their flame.
Now, no chick-flick would be complete without some mishaps. The ladies run into a few obstacles on the road to love. Diane just keeps tripping over flat road, per her usual obnoxious style, Andy Garcia ages nicely and if anyone could make you trip up it would be him, especially with a pilot hat adorning his head. Vivian refuses to break her own rules but who cares about her when Don Johnson plays her love interest. She needs a good smack across the face, Sharon obliges, because she is nasty and does not deserve Don. Sharon lives in the land of regret as she watches her ex-husband become engaged to a much younger woman as she dates several potential suitors. Carol slips a few blue pills into her husband’s drink that goes awry. With life changing, the ladies cling to their book club and continue reading the trilogy as they experienced their own awakenings.
The plot could have switched to raunchy but the writers and director keep the story toeing the line of funny and naughty. “Book Club” is a coming of age story but in reverse. Instead of teenagers experiencing sex and love for the first time, these women experience sex and love from a new angle, and they look fantastic! I’m serious. At not quite forty, I can only hope to grace into retirement as beautifully as these ladies. The men too. They were gorgeous. I’m at that awkward age where twenty years olds are as attractive as Harrison Ford. Why wasn’t he in this movie? He and Mary make a much more believable, and steamy, couple than former “Coach” star Craig T. Nelson. Fine lines, gray hairs, and body shifts do not mean unattractive, they mean a different audience.
Enjoy the light-hearted journey tackling age with dignity. Sexy is not defined by a number but by an attitude. “Book Club” will inspire many women to find their second, or maybe even their third, awakening after watching this club tackle love in their sixties. They sure did a better job than the lovable cast of “The Golden Girls,” although the characters are quite different, except Vivian was Blanche. Otherwise, the characters were human women seeking a connection and feel like life is not over just because they are on the other side of fifty. A few kinks were over the top but otherwise, the movie was great fun and worth a visit to the theater.
In theaters Friday, May 18th
