If 2018 is the year of female empowerment, especially in Hollywood, you would imagine that cinema would reflect that on screen in some way or another. I first learned about Book Club (2018) by reading an entertainment magazine some time ago, which showed a photo of the four leading women on set together. The idea of a comedy starring powerhouse actresses Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen was beyond the dreams of any avid movie lover such as myself. Each of these women has expertly carried impeccable films and episodes of television on their backs in the past and continue to do so today. Together they would no doubt be unstoppable and hilarious. Well evidentially in the seats of movie theaters playing Book Club this year, doubt came to breed and breed it did. Book Club is not a flop per se, that would be too simplistic an implication for what has actually occurred here. Book Club is a missed opportunity of epic proportions in a time when female voices have the most to say in the loudest and proudest voices possible, Book Club says so very little in an uninspiring whimper. Age before beauty, but not before substance.
Much like the reader's guides you find in the back pages of bestseller novels, I have chosen to divide this review into several questions that one may pose to themselves and others after viewing the film.
What are the "Fifty Shades of Problems?"
This film's first major issue comes with the premise that the four female leads select Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L James as the next book to read in their monthly book club. Reading the controversial content in the novel inspires them to reinvigorate their various love lives regardless of their ages. The use of the cultural craze of this book, which is already well past it's prime considering the horrendously ridiculous movie trilogy that followed it ended last year, instantly dates the movie in the worst of ways. Book Club will be remembered, if at all, as; "the film where those four big actresses read that trashy book about bondage." Why the writers chose a real-life book for the women to read, particularly a book as derided and unsexy as Fifty Shades of Grey is beyond me or anyone with a rational mind. It's an early example of the film's lazy writing techniques as the screenwriters didn't have the creative wherewithal to create a fictional book series that makes the women reflect on the place of sexuality in their golden years. They unquestionably could have come up with something far more sexy and sophisticated than the source material, a feat anyone with a sufficient talent for writing fan-fiction could easily accomplish. It's fine to want to explore older women's fascination with the Fifty Shades Series, but why do so in such a literal way that completely alienates audiences who aren't familiar with or don't care for the actual source material? In a fitting twist of feminist irony, the women never even state the novel's female protagonist's name (Anastasia) or discuss her sexual liberation. They just go goo goo over Christian Grey, a man so problematic his name should never be uttered on the silver screen again.
Who are these Women?
Yes, of course, we know the actresses playing the roles of the four leads, but what of the characters themselves? The people the women portray all feel like stock characters from superior parts in their earlier careers. Jane Fonda is a confident, ballbusting industry titan, not unlike her character on Grace and Frankie. Candice Bergen is a powerful, no-nonsense judge, eerily similar to the character that made her famous on television in Murphy Brown. Diane Keaton is the cute neurotic she's played more aptly in literally dozens of her older films. Mary Steenburgen is timid and mild-mannered, even sporting an on-screen husband she's been paired with before, Craig T. Nelson. None of their roles feels fleshed out or organic in any shape or form. They play to type in the most derisive of ways. Life-long friends have much more interesting conversations than this bunch, regardless of the topic at hand. Bergen seems to suffer the worst, saddled with a character that is both dry and unsalvageable. While Keaton charms her way through the film and Fonda garners a few laughs from her typical brash humor, Bergen meanders, never quite settling into form. Steenburgen fairs a bit better, but only because she and Nelson have previously explored chemistry. It's not really any of the actresses fault, other than the fact they seemed to have signed on for a project without really considering it's incredibly clichéd and unfunny script. They do their best with what they're given, but first time director and co-writer Bill Holderman can't even manage to create decent chemistry between his four star-studded leads when they appear on the screen at the same time. The film is actually at it's best when the stars are working on their own, relying on old tricks to get them through this salary-chasing snooze fest. When they must perform together, the film's faults surface all too clearly to the top of the wine glass like a cork left adrift. They never congeal into an actual female friend group and therefore never feel authentic. They are representing tropes, not women.
What COULD it have Said?
The film's premise, though slightly absurd, does give way to several important issues being tackled throughout its two-hour running time. It skims the surface of the sexual frustration the comes with aging and briefly touches on issues like maintaining one's independence with rising age. Still, it never does anything of substance with any of this material. It's as if they are boxes being checked off on a list of things to cover in a film aimed at older women rather than just being about older women. It's a shame, but with a moderate box office income and several positive reviews from some kind critics, the silver lining may be that this lackluster feature can give way to more films covering this subject matter with superior skill and added flavor. Still, it's like choking on a bitter Zoloft pill when you think about the nearly unbearable missed opportunities presented in this film with its outstanding ensemble cast and potentially provocative subject matter. The film is like a striptease that never finds the full confidence to take its clothes off and hop into bed.
These women paved the way for millions of others throughout their groundbreaking careers, and perhaps this film is simply an example of them drilling away at the patriarchal cement with continued gusto. A movie like this would likely not have been made years ago and certainly not with this kind of respected cast. Still, both they and the filmmakers dared to give this narrative legs to walk on at a time when women are taking immensely important steps in this world, particularly Hollywood, toward something better. Book Club isn't the promised land, but maybe it's a ho-hum stop along the way.
