The plot: For the past thirty years, best friends Diane (Diane Keaton), Vivian (Jane Fonda), Sharon (Candice Bergen) and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) have met up every month for book club. One month, they choose Fifty Shades Of Grey as their book, and as they read on, they find themselves questioning where they are in life and love and whether they're going to do something about it.
Cue massive sigh of relief from yours truly that this part of the review isn’t just another obituary for the dignity of older actors. Keaton as the resigned mother has her in prime form, imbuing her more romantic scenes with a rather infectious spring in her step. I’m sure that acting opposite Andy García in one of his smoothest performances of late didn’t hurt. Fonda as the archetypal strong independent woman, aside from marking the second film of hers I’ve reviewed that just had to bring up her cosmetic surgery, manages a solid balancing act between the liberation her life affords her, but also the isolating setbacks of thinking that she’s at her strongest when she stays alone. Don Johnson as her old flame honestly makes for one of the limper performances in the cast here, so in a way, I can see her point.
Bergen as the judge trying to get back into the dating scene
hits a lot of the bigger points regarding older love with laser-guided poise,
and even though context gets in the way of things, hearing her talk about what her inner goddess is doing? It works better than it has any right to. Ed Begley Jr. as her ex-husband sets the groundwork for the film’s
most emotional moment, and his chemistry with Bergen is pretty solid on top of
that. And then there’s Steenburgen as the frustrated romantic, who is
definitely hindered by the framing of her character but still adds a healthy
amount to the main group dynamic. Bonus points for Craig T. Nelson’s work as
her husband, who makes for probably the most realistic depiction of an older
gentleman this film has to offer.
Between writer/director Bill Holderman and co-writer Erin
Simms, there’s not a whole lot of scripting experience between them. I’ve been
making a bit of a habit of saying this in reviews of late but, once again, that
lack of experience shows in the final product. Don’t get me wrong, the dialogue
lands on the right side of earnest with how the main four interact with each
other, but… okay, let’s just cut to the chase: This script should have toned it
down on the sexual innuendos. Like, it is kind of astounding just how many
metaphors for sex were squeezed into this writing, to the point where the film
itself had to point it out when Sharon says “enough with the metaphors!” It can
get quite cringey, not helped by the rather clichéd soundtrack picks that they
are set against at certain points. I don’t know how you can make Charlie Puth’s
Marvin Gaye any less sexy than it already is, but when put in a film where it
seems like any remotely-phallic object in the background was put there for all
of one reason, this film managed it.
But with that said, as far as looking at female sexuality
from an older perspective, this feels like it taps into some worthy topics.
Topics like how getting older isn’t an absolute guarantee that a woman will
lose interest in sex, or that want for affection and romantic love doesn’t die
at that stage either, or that how younger people treat older people can be a
tad patronising in how they always assume the worst. I will not pretend that I
am in either the age demographic or even the right sex to be able to relate to
stuff like this, but part of going out to see movies that aren’t made for me
ends up forcing me to try and empathise with people who would find something appealing in this. And honestly, I totally get
it. It treats the sex lives of the main characters pretty much beat-for-beat
how they would be treated in a film with passing-for-teenaged actors, with how
it portrays dating and social anxieties related to dating. Between the main
four, the story ends up covering a lot
of ground with how many different varieties of “I’m sexually frustrated and I need to do something about it” we get
over the course of 100 minutes and change.
Shame that the plot had to be kick-started by introducing
our characters to the increasingly fucked-up world of Fifty Shades to get to
that point. Now, to a degree, I actually get why that particular book was
chosen; I’m still amazed at how many times I’ve seen older women reading Fifty
Shades Of Grey on the bus, so I get a certain demographic alignment. But then
again, having read all three books, having seen all three movies, and having
essentially broken up with the series as a whole earlier this year, something
about anyone getting sexual ideas from those books is… worrying, to put it
lightly. When it got to the point of the women perking themselves up by saying
“even Christian Grey fell in love”, my face contorted to the point where I was
probably unrecognisable to the human eye.
This is only boosted with what Carol brings to the table,
since she ends up being the most infatuated with what’s she’s reading, right
down to a pretty excruciating exchange between her and Craig T. Nelson’s Bruce
about him tying her up with plastic cable ties. No, that’s not how that works,
and quite frankly, that level of misunderstanding about what actually
constitutes BDSM is part of the reason I and many others don’t take too kindly
to those books. Of course, that scene is still an improvement over her spiking
her husband’s beer with Viagra so that they can get their frisk on… only she
didn’t tell him that that’s what she’s doing. Why am I not surprised that the
one who takes the most liking to Fifty Shades is also the one with the
most tenuous understanding of what “consent” is? Granted, the film is at least
aware of how wrong that notion is, but even still, the idea that those books
could end up giving decent people horrible ideas? Again, part of the reason
those books get a lot of flak, and rightfully so.
All in all, while I admit to having quite a few hang-ups
about Fifty Shades Of Grey being a main plot point, this honestly isn't that
bad. The acting is solid, with Keaton, Fonda, Bergen and Steenburgen all
bringing something unique to the proceedings, the production values are pretty
good for a first-time director, and while the soundtrack may be too cheesy for
its own good, the dialogue can be eye-rolling and that core plot point makes
this difficult to like too much, the
statements made about older feminine sexuality makes it difficult to hate too
much either. Another case of this likely faring better with its target audience
than with someone like myself, but looking at the pieces here, you could
certainly do a hell of a lot worse regardless.
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