I love to read, and while I can appreciate a book club I don’t know if I am ready for that type of commitment. For others though that is not a problem and the whole book club thing seems to work for a ton of people. The other problem I would have besides the commitment issues would be the friends I would need to populate said book club. As you can see from this I might have some problems. Which is something me and this movie share in common.
You know who doesn’t have problem finding friends? These four women. Diane (Diane Keaton) just lost her husband a year ago and her two daughters, who are the worst kids ever, are trying to talk her into moving to Arizona. Meanwhile her other three friends, Vivian (Jane Fonda), Sharon (Candice Bergen), and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) are all dealing with their own life issues. For Vivian it’s an old flame in Don Johnson who reappears in her life which starts to threaten her single way of life. Then you have Sharon who’s love life has been dormant for eighteen years and decides to give online dating a whirl with some success. Finally you have Carol who can’t seem to make her husband Bruce (Craig T. Nelson) pay any attention to her in the bedroom anymore. All of these life problems are brought to the surface because of someone’s choice to make “Fifty Shades of Grey” their book choice, which proves once again reading those books is not a good idea. Lucky for them what started as bad all ends well because with this is the book and a whole lot of wine that sets their sails in the right direction in the ocean they call life.
I knew before I went into this that I was not the intended audience and it didn’t take long for me to reaffirm that as I looked around the theater I was in. Writers Erin Simms and Bill Holderman, the later also directing knew what market they were trying to corner. While for me it didn’t do much especially after an hour and forty minute run-time, about fifteen minutes too long, for the rest of the audience it went over very well. While I enjoyed seeing these actors still bringing it, with a cast that includes all of the above as well as Richard Dreyfuss, Ed Begley Jr. and Wallace Shaw it really is inconceivable there is so many great names in this film, and I still found myself not really enjoying it. There are parts that were entertaining to me , but I also felt like I didn’t get some of the jokes because I am just not in that age bracket yet. I have always understood that not every movie is made for me in mind, and that is good, because there are so many people out there who are not like me at all. My mother would love “Book Club” and you know what yours probably would too, but for me that’s a club I’m not quite ready for just yet.
