Book Club (2018). Director: Bill Holderman. (12a).
Rating: 3/5 worth watching
Synopsis
A group of College Co-Ed girl have graduated and become leading lights in their own special way.
Widow Diane (Diane Keaton) had a lovely, comfortable marriage that produced two lovely daughters. Free spirited Vivian (Jane Fonda) has never experienced love but has had a wild sex life for the past 40-odd years. Sharon (Candice Bergen) studied law is now a Judge, but is still effected by the divorce from her first husband (Ed Begley Jr.) many years before.
Former waitress and middle-class matriarch supreme Carol (Mary Steenburgen) is still a homemaker but struggles to keep the flame of love alive with her kind but romantically uninterested husband (Craig T. Nelson).
They meet up on an infrequent basis to drink wine and discuss life as part of their Book Club. Dissatisified with their personal lives, Vivian decided to inject some much needed oomph and suggests they read notorious mummy S&M porn novel 50 Shades of Grey. The results are hilarious...and surprising for all.
Review by Jason Day
50 Shades of Grey author E.L. James has a lot to answer for.
Not content with producing a literary trilogy that took the world by storm and earned her a pretty penny in the process.
50 Shades is such a by-word for decadent self indulgence that it has percolated into the public consciousness so much that new books, films and TV programmes are being made that reference, nee anchor themselves, to her written words.
Book Club is one of them...and rather entertaining it is too, as one of the finest, older female casts in Hollywood get down and dirty with the book's contents and find it has a surprising, effervescent effect on their private lives.
You'll be able to spot the punchlines from miles away and there's nothing especially original in the narrative about mature gals finding more than just their G-Spot between the pages of a book, but you'll love how this gossamer thin material is played to the hilt.
So yes, Candice Bergen, so often relegated to supporting bigger filmic names as the sassy, icy professional woman, take your bow. This comic genius walks the film...with bags of wit, impeccable delivery and style.
For more, read my full review: http://bit.ly/bookclubfilm
Cast & credits
1hr 44 min (104 min). Apartment Story/June Pictures/Paramount.
Producers:Andrew Duncan, Bill Holderman, Alex Saks, Erin Simms.
Writers:Bill Holderman, Erin Simms.
Camera:Andrew Dunn.
Music:Peter Nashel.
Sets:Rachel O'Toole.
Diane Keaton, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Don Johnson, Alicia Silverstone, Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr., Wallace Shawn.
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