Not living before not living? If a quote like this makes you roll your eyes, you would definitely do likewise when watching Book Club (Film).
Book Club (Film) Synopsis
Vivian, Sharon, Carol, and Diane are four close friends who have been meeting monthly for a book club for 30 years. To inject some spice into their routine lives, the vivacious Vivian suggests Fifty Shades of Grey when it is her turn for title recommendations. Initially derisive, her friends are soon fascinated, even scintillated, by the SM antics of Christian Grey. Unexpectedly, this soon leads to each of them rediscovering love. All four gals will also learn the meaning of not living before actually not living.
Snappy Review
Here’s something creepy for you. Yours sincerely adores comedies with older women. Particularly those involving love and sexuality.
Nah, nah! Get your head out of the gutters, you. (:P) The only reason I love these is because I’ve been a diehard Golden Girls fanboy since young. Few things tickle me more than sweet old ladies openly discussing sex and love with deadpan faces. As for the actual acts, eek! What were you thinking? Do I sound like someone who watches rated movies?!?
…
Enough with the lame humour. I mentioned The Golden Girls because this was what Book Club (Film) felt like to me when I first watched the trailer. In many ways, the movie is indeed an updated reiteration of The Golden Girls formula. Jane Fonda was doing a “Blanche.” Candice Bergen’s Sharon was a tamer and more successful version of “Dorothy.”
Diane Keaton, I supposed, was playing a younger version of “Sophia.” One just prior to losing half her freedom from shifting in with a child.
It’s an attractive premise, one that’s potent and nostalgic too. (I used to be a huge Murphy Brown fan too, btw) Sad to say, though, this attraction is very much all there is to it with Book Club (Film).
Weighed down by insipid humour that simply isn’t very funny, or memorable, the movie never really ventures into depth with the themes it deals with, be it bedroom woes, disappointment with relationships, or the inability to commit. In other words, the “why” of anything is never discussed, despite that being so crucial. We are simply told that one had a disappointing husband, another prefers her freedom, and so on. How exactly these led to the characters on screen, we never really discover.
On top of which there’s the silly Fifty Shades plot device. I understand this was meant for laughs and intended as a lead-in to the main story. Still, would four self-aware and largely successful women, one of whom is a federal judge, be so affected by overhyped soft-porn?
If anything, I thought the women would have fun ridiculing it, rather than the other way around. To see them so scintillated, well, it was amusing at first. Then it got tired. Very lame too.
Click here to view the trailer.
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 review. Despite the presence of 4 veteran and formidable actresses, this romantic comedy about love and age just fails to shine.){kind=link}
Good review. I thought this movie was just okay. I wasn’t really expecting much from it (especially using Fifty Shades as a book club book / plot device). However, I did like most of the actresses in the movie. I would say that this movie is like comfort food…easy to digest and to watch.
Hey Jason! Thanks for commenting. Yeah, Book Club wasn’t that great, in my case made worse by me being a big time Murphy Brown fan. Most of it just felt flat.
The women in the cinema enjoyed it quite a bit, though. There was much enthusiastic giggling, whenever Fifty Shades was mentioned. 😛