Book Club
Reading Time: 2 minutes
It’s a welcome surprise when a film turns out to be more than ‘harmless light entertainment’. And so it was when I offered to come along to a screening of Book Club.
The storyline concerns four near retirement age women who for several decades have met as a book club. The film begins when Vivian (Jane Fonda) a successful business woman who for 40 years has chosen to avoid emotional ties by confining her love life to casual sex encounters, chooses Fifty Shades of Gray as the book to be read and discussed at their next meeting. The manner in which each of the women find the sexual themes confronting and life-changing is the subject matter of the rest of the book. You may be either relieved or disappointed to learn that the film is not about bondage or sado-masochism.
What makes the film more than a predictable romantic comedy is that each of the women has her own distinct story, and therefore something with with which most viewers may identify. Sharon, (Candice Bergman) is a Federal Court judge whose ex husband (Ed Begley Jr) has a girl-friend as young as their son. Diane, portrayed by Diane Keaton is a recently widowed woman with overly protective daughters. The fourth and only currently married member of the club is Carol (Ann Steenburgen), whose husband (Craig T. Nelson) has recently retired.
As the actors behind the four main characters have long been familiar to us, and because of the storyline, we are permitted to comment on how each has changed in the course of preceding decades.
While the film is peppered with Hollywood cliches, flat jokes and schmaltz, it does enough to potentially resonate with most of us. This and the excellent acting by the veteran A grade cast, which also features Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfus and Don Johnston, make this a film which while not likely to set any box office records will provide surprisingly meaningful and enjoyable old-fashioned entertainment.
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