Film Review: Book Club

The first rule of Book Club is: you do not-

No, that’s no good. Let me try a different one.

I am Jack’s newfound sexual-

Nah, that’s not right, either.

Maybe I can make a gag about the subliminal dick shot?

OK, nevermind, this was a bad idea.

So, Book Club! It’s basically Sex and the City by way of Gilmore Girls. Does that sound fun to you? Then you’ll probably have a lot of fun with this movie like I did.

I guess I should get into more detail.

The film, which is directed by Bill Holderman, who also co-wrote it with Erin Simms, follows the lives of four best friends, Vivian (Jane Fonda), Carol (Mary Steenburgen), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Diane (Diane Keaton), who have held a monthly book club for 30 years, though it’s mostly an excuse for them to get together and bond and help one another, as friends do. One day, Vivian brings in Fifty Shades of Grey for that month’s book, and it ends up serving as a wake up call that inspires them to make certain changes to their life.

We follow each character who each deal with something different. Vivian is a workaholic who only does quick flings, but finds that she might have feelings for a man from the past when Arthur (Don Johnson) shows up to stay at her hotel. Carol and her husband, Bruce (Craig T. Nelson), don’t have the same spark they once had in their love life. Sharon is struggling to move on from her divorce, so she can go dating again. And Diane is resistant to the idea of meeting someone after her husband passed away, which is made worse by her grown kids who hold her back from doing what she wants.

These stories aren’t reinventing the wheel. This isn’t the kind of film that surprises you with various twist and turns, or anything of that nature. It’s all mostly a thinly veiled excuse to have all these iconic women hang out together and bounce off each other in fun and delightful ways, while also exploring the idea of empowering older women to enrich their lives in whatever way they see fit, which includes their sexuality, a subject that pop culture has largely ignored with this demographic (unless it’s a joke at their expense). And on that level, it totally works.

The material definitely isn’t the most refined, a lot of the jokes are easy and very old school sitcom-y, but what makes it work is the cast. It helps that the characters are obviously informed by the personas and past work done by these women. Hell, Diane Keaton’s character is literally named Diane, and she’s basically doing Annie Hall. The other cast members are a smidge less obvious as that, but the effect is still there, and it’s a smart way of handling these characters. And of course, they are all total pros with decades of experience, so even jokes that might seem awful on paper will end up coming across much better because they are just that good. It’s the same kind of logic that goes behind defending a schlocky action movie because it has a really great star at the center of it. It’s the same here, and it doesn’t make it any lesser of an experience just because its target audience is women.

A part of me was worried about the way Fifty Shades of Grey will be included here. I’m not a fan of the books or movies (though I can somewhat defend the first film), and a big chunk of that is because of the sketchy way it handles the BDSM and the way it sensationalizes and rationalizes abuse. This film doesn’t get into that kind of detail, though. Fifty Shades of Grey could’ve easily been replaced with literally any romance novel, and the movie would be the same, aside from three direct references to lines from the first book. It doesn’t come across like a celebration of the book, as much as it is just a catalyst for the women to think differently about their lives. There’s no real specificity to the way the book informs the characters. Although, that did make it more weird when E. L. James randomly showed up for a cameo.

I do, however, do take issue with the way the film handled Diane’s story. It puts a lot of emphasis on her daughters, Adrianne (Katie Aselton) and Jill (Alicia Silverstone), constantly calling her, keeping her in check, and telling her what she should do, as if she’s some old, decrepit woman who can’t function. Diane is anything but, she’s fairly active, very social, and yet they continuously talk down to her, sometimes to comedic effect, but I have a feeling the film doesn’t realize just how bad this actually is. The moment that Diane finally confronts them about it felt rather soft compared to the lengths the two went to control her, and it made that particular plot line rather troublesome and hard to sit through.

Aside from that (plus a weird amount of bad green screen), Book Club is a lot of fun. We don’t get to see a lot of films where older actors, particularly women, get to shine as people with thoughts, feelings, humor, sexual agency, among other things, instead of just being “the main character’s mom” or something like that. It’s a joy seeing these women work together, and they deliver charming and thoughtful performances with plenty of killer line deliveries. It would’ve been nicer to see something more ambitious and challenging, but this is still something rare, so I think it’s still worth treasuring.

I am Jack’s pleasant surprise.