Book Club

           When I first saw the commercials for Book Club, I wasn’t sure what to think.  It looked like the movie could either be really funny, or really bad.  When I finally saw it, funny was the answer. 

                It’s been years since four friends started their monthly book club as young women.  Now older, the women have gone through many different life events and stuck together through it all. 

                Vivian (Jane Fonda) never married.  She owns her own hotel and moves from man to man.

                Sharon (Candice Bergen) is a judge, divorced, and has a son who has become newly engaged.

                Carol (Mary Steenburgen) is happily married to Bruce (Craig T. Nelson), who is retired.  Or at least that is how it appears to those on the outside. 

              Diane (Diane Keaton) is a widow.  Now that she lives alone, her daughters are convinced she cannot take care of herself, and want their mother to move closer to them. 

               Moving to be with her daughters is the life Diane looks to be heading towards until Vivian selects Fifty Shades of Grey as the book club read.  The other women in the club aren’t so sure about this selection, but they go with it.  Very quickly they all find themselves absorbed in the story.  As they continue to read, they each experience changes and face the truth about things they were unsatisfied with in their lives.

                Diane has some of the biggest changes.  Flying to visit her daughters, Diane meets Mitchell (Andy Garcia), a pilot.  They joke about the book she is reading, and from that point on, Mitchell sweeps Diane off her feet.  He makes her laugh all the time, and they go on adventures together.  Diane finds she is truly happy with this man.

                The problem is Diane must still deal with her daughters.  They treat her as though she is old and decrepit, which Diane most certainly is not.  Her daughters’ behavior is the reason Diane doesn’t tell them about Mitchell.  Instead, she keeps him a secret, until their overconcern for her has them finding out.

                Sharon has been divorced for eighteen years, and has not had so much as a date the entire time.  After the group starts reading Fifty Shades of Grey, Sharon decides to try online dating.  She meets a nice accountant and a doctor, only to be thrown when she meets her ex-husband’s extremely young fiancée.  Upset over this meeting, Sharon decides to give up on finding love for herself.

                Carol is struggling with what is going in in her marriage.  Everyone thinks she and Bruce are all over each other.  The truth is, they haven’t been together for some time.  Carol does whatever she can to attract Bruce’s attention, but he is not responding.  Eventually Carol decides to do something drastic, causing Bruce to become angry.  This ends up being a good thing, though, because it forces them to talk about what is really going on in their marriage for the first time.

                As for Vivian, a man from her past suddenly appears again.  At first Vivian is happy to see Arthur (Don Johnson).  They spend time together and become close.  Things fall apart when Arthur professes his love for Vivian.  It is something she cannot handle, and Vivian pushes Arthur away claiming she is better off without him.

                Throughout all of these ups and downs, there is laughter and women coming together.  They care and support each other, no matter what.  There were some parts in the movie that lagged, and Diane’s daughters drove me crazy, but for the most part this was a light, fun film.  It was about love, and women being there for each other through the good times and the bad.  In a time where there is so much antagonism and conflict between people, these caring relationships are something that really needs to be seen.