Not many books get discussed in Book Club. Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen play 60ish women who meet once a month to discuss books. When they read Fifty Shades of Grey, the women’s libidos kick into high gear. Candice Bergen, who plays a Federal judge, goes online to find Richard Dreyfuss and Wallace Shawn. Jane Fonda flirts her with her old boyfriend, Don Johnson. Diane Keaton, who is afraid of flying, attracts Andy Garcia, a pilot. And Mary Steenburgen tries to reignite her husband (Craig T. Nelson) with a double-dose of Viagra. Directed by Bill Holderman from a script by Holderman and Erin Simms, Book Club shows that romance later in Life is still possible…and funny. GRADE: B
I can have no respect for characters who are so shallow as to be impressed with such a badly written book. I like the actresses but count me out.
Steve, Fifty Shades of Grey is just the McGuffin that ignites these women’s libidos. Book Club is really about Elder romance.
Pass. Jackie will watch it when it gets to cable.
I’m guessing by your “sixthish” that they fudge the ages. For the record, Jane is an amazing looking 80, Keaton and Bergen are 72, Steenburgen is 65.
And the men? Dreyfuss is 70, Nelson 74, Johnson 68, Shawn 74, and Garcia 62.
That makes one 80, five 70s and only three 60s, by my count.
Jeff, all of these actors and actresses looked their ages except for Jane Fonda.
I lost my interest when they chose to highlight a book that needs no help and deserves none. I wish they could make movies about older people that weren’t just for older people. But I guess I should be grateful we turn up on the screen at all.
Patti, the Box Office numbers for BOOK CLUB have been strong. That could mean more movies about people our age.
I’m 60, so I suppose this should be my jam—but as soon as I saw the ad, I was totally turned off. I can’t believe smart, self-aware women of any age in 2018–especially if they’re in a book club!—haven’t already read 50 SHADES (if they want to) or at least know what it’s about. And why paint them all as sex-starved women on the prowl? It just feeds into too many cliches for me.
/Harrumph!
I will add though that the decor looks great—kudos to the set designer—and it’s nice to see that at least Candace Bergen has decided that, as a woman of a certain age, she no longer has to diet fanatically.
Deb, you’re right about the sets in BOOK CLUB. You would love Andy Garcia’s remarkable house!
Deb, I’m not sure the women in BOOK CLUB are sex-starved (although Mary Steenburgen’s character certain is) as much as they are starved for Love.
Aside: a friend of Jackie’s was pushing 50 SHADES on her, hard, when it was first a thing. She did look at the first couple of pages but was appalled by how bad it was. Let’s not forget that the author’s previous claim to fame (such as it was) was writing TWILIGHT fan fiction. I’d say she ranked it even below her previous mark as Worst.Book.Ever., which was Danielle Steel’s BIG GIRL.
I was turned off to PBS’s GREAT AMERICAN READ by their inclusion of 50 SHADES in their Top 100 list. It is certainly conceivable to me that with all the fans of that book, it could either win or certainly make it to the top 5 or 10.
Jeff, FIFTY SHADES OF GREY was a publishing phenomena. It just goes to show how low the bar is set in the U.S. for “casual” readers (i.e., people who just read one book a year).
I call 50 SHADES “a bdsm romance for people who haven’t read many of them”—and, yes, there are plenty of them and they are far better written than 50 SHADES.
Deb, somehow FIFTY SHADES OF GREY found an audience and generated incredible sales. I remember going to BJ’s Warehouse one day to buy vitamins and they had a huge pile of FIFTY SHADES OF GREY and the other two books in the series. Customers were buying them by the handful! The only thing I’ve seen like it was the HARRY POTTER book sales I used to take my kids to.
I wonder why you even wasted time and money on this loser, George. Sounds just dreadful. All star cast wasting time for a paycheck. As for 50 Shades, it’s smut, and I never had, a moment’s interest in it. Maybe many of the people who bought it did so as a Dirty Little Secret, intending to read it under the covers with a flashlight. Pfui.
Rick, my only defense is that I was a captive. Diane and I went out to lunch with friends and they wanted to see BOOK CLUB. I lobbied for DEADPOOL 2 or AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (I could watch either movie again), but lost. The things we do for Love and Friendship…
Fuck any movie with that quisling Hanoi Jane, who spends more time in plastic surgery than eating! I’m appalled that any American would spend a penny helping her get richer! What a nation of sheep!
Well…50 SHADES *is* fan-fiction, with the TWILIGHT aspects edited out. THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB is, I suspect, a better example of the same sort of thing, albeit obviously with a younger set of characters (it also helps to base one’s film on a Karen Joy Fowler novel). There was a fine British sitcom called THE BOOK CLUB a decade back, as well.
It would be a bit more interesting, and probably wouldn’t’ve lost them any ticket sales, if these women were reading, say, Susie Bright’s pioneering YEAR’S BEST EROTICA or Rachel Bussell’s YEAR’S BEST SEX WRITING annuals, having been drawn in by the excitement over the SHADES books.
TWILIGHT and Erica Jong and Jackie Susann and others have certainly sold similarly over the decades…
Todd, I think the director and screenwriter for BOOK CLUB just picked 50 SHADES OF GREY because it was instantly identifiable. It really doesn’t enter into the plot of the movie other than as a catalyst.