{"id":29841,"date":"2018-12-12T16:17:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-12T21:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=29841"},"modified":"2018-12-12T19:40:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T00:40:37","slug":"book-club-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/12\/book-club-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Club (2018)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Much like every trend, America jumps on to what the UK did much better in film. After the rousing success of \u201cThe Best Exotic Marigold Hotel\u201d films, America followed up with \u201cBook Club.\u201d There\u2019s nothing wrong with a movie appealing to the older mature audiences in the mood for a good time that\u2019s not centered on superheroes or animated characters, but \u201cBook Club\u201d is just such a waste of time. It takes a brilliant cast and wastes them in what feels like latter day Garry Marshall when he was trotting out awful holiday based ensemble films.<\/p>\n

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Bill Holderman\u2019s \u201cBook Club\u201d centers on four women and best friends, all of whom are experiencing new directions in their lives. Now reaching the peek of their adulthood where they\u2019re expected by most people in society to settle down, they\u2019ve proven that they\u2019re ready to begin a new chapter. Every month for thirty years Diane, Vivian, Sharon, and Carol meet up to discuss their newest read, and chat about where they are in their lives. When they decide to read \u201cFifty Shades of Grey\u201d (t-the book about misogyny, and mental abuse), it creates a spark within them to seek out new forms of happiness, hoping to live out the rest of their lives without regrets.<\/p>\n

\u201cBook Club\u201d primarily centers on Diane Keaton\u2019s character Diane who, after losing her husband, is being badgered by her two frumpy daughters to move closer to them. This doesn\u2019t inspire too much optimism within her, especially as she crosses paths with an old friend (Andy Garcia) who is now a pilot. Meanwhile there\u2019s Vivian, a rich hotel owner who is used to one night stands, but finds potential stability with a new man (Don Johnson), Carol, a house wife is anxiously trying to revive her sex life with her husband (Craig T. Nelson), and finally Sharon, a workaholic who is still getting over her tough divorce who begins falling for a man (Richard Dreyfus) she met on a dating site.<\/p>\n

\u201cBook Club\u201d garners such a stellar cast of brilliant character actors, and never really does much of anything with any of them. It\u2019s wrought with ancient romance comedy clich\u00e9s, and goofy sex jokes; it\u2019s just beneath each and every one of them. The cast of Jane Fonda (who is still devastatingly sexy), Mary Steenburgen, Candice Bergen, and Diane Keaton could lead a wonderful drama comedy about reaching a certain point in your life, and showing everyone that old age doesn\u2019t mean you have to stop functioning and looking for new experiences.<\/p>\n

Instead we get a ton of double entendres chucked at us at an almost lightning fast speed, and some absolutely trite sub-plots that never amount to any kind of interesting message or statement. It\u2019s just a lot of candy coated junk with these cast members drinking wine and making jokes about orgasms, and genitals. Every character feels like such a broadly written clich\u00e9, right down to Keaton\u2019s frumpy daughters insisting she move near them, all the while dragging around dutiful husbands and kids in carriages. With four main stars that broke such barriers and changed the way women have been perceived on film, you just can\u2019t help but think that they deserve much better than what feels like one of the dozens of cheap \u201cSex and the City\u201d copies from the early aughts.<\/p>\n