Book Club
3 stars
Director: Bill Holderman
Stars: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen
Duration: 114 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Book Club is based on the premise that four older women’s romantic lives are given an injection of vim and vigour when they choose author E. L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey as their next title to discuss in their book club.

Yet, this is not what makes the movie worth your while – it’s the fact that the women are played by ever-watchable legends of the big and small screens Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen.

Diane (Keaton) has recently lost her husband of 40 years. Vivian (Fonda) is a successful hotelier who embarks on many affairs with no strings attached. Federal Judge Sharon (Bergen) still harbours resentment for her ex-husband – whom she divorced 18 years ago – while Chef Carol (Steenburgen) is looking for ways to reinvigorate her happy, but staid 35-year marriage to Bruce (Craig T. Nelson).

When Vivian introduces the book to the group, it is met with curiosity by Carol (who begins to imagine duct tape and cable ties as more than mere tools in the garage), intrigue by Diane (whose daughters treat her as a drooling invalid and who want her to move to Arizona to live with them in a refurbished basement with non-slip floors) and revulsion by Sharon (who has pretty much made up her mind that her sexual life is over and done with).

As the foursome read the book, Arthur (Don Johnson), Vivian’s ex from 40 years back, turns up (he just happens to be staying in her hotel). Yet, despite his unabashed charm, she refuses to be drawn back into a relationship.

You don’t need to be a film academic to discern just how things will develop

Diane just happens to bump into a handsome pilot (Andy Garcia) who sweeps her off her feet. On learning her ex-husband is getting engaged to a 20-something woman he met on the internet, Sharon starts to explore internet dating… while Carol tries to sort out the kinks in her marriage by introducing some kink into it.

You don’t need to be a film academic to discern just how things will develop. Yet, despite the rather thin narrative and predictable dialogue – and for all its double entendres and less subtle utterances – the script written by Bill Holderman (who also directs) and Erin Simms plays it safe.

You can’t help but sit back and enjoy the company this gaggle of women who are still on top of their game, and who create a quartet of fully-rounded and engaging characters. They are all intelligent women with satisfying careers, and a high dose of dry wit.

Fonda, still the epitome of class and elegance is always game for a laugh as she confronts the realities of ageing (though the recent scene which went viral from her TV show Grace and Frankie is a much more powerful statement); Keaton is at her adorable kooky best as she patiently sits through to the stifling and exaggerated care of her daughters; Bergen’s Sharon accepts what she believes is her lot in life with grace (until she doesn’t); while Steenburgen has fun as a woman who goes to extremes to save her marriage (a Viagra gag goes down well… or should that be goes up?).

The men of the piece are happy to play second fiddle, though they are all too perfect to be true. And, for all the film’s positive celebration of the idea of older women having active sexual lives, I still found the notion that women need men to feel complete a tad annoying.

That said, Garcia and Johnson turn on the charm to the full; Nelson successfully channels a man who has no idea what to do with his retirement while Richard Dreyfuss, Wallace Shawn and Ed Begley Jr are the men in Sharon’s lives.

I was also tickled by the fact that the actors playing Fonda and Keaton’s paramours are younger than them. A welcome change to the norm we have come to expect from Hollywood.