Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (July 9, 2023)
At no point did 2018’s Book Club threaten to turn into a major hit. However, with a gross of $104 million on a $14 million budget, it turned a tidy profit.
It took five years but a sequel finally hit screens via 2023’s Book Club: The Next Chapter. It failed to produce a similar financial return and brought in a mere $28 million on its $20 million budget.
Thus I wouldn’t expect Book Club 3: The Nextest Chapter any time soon – or ever. Not that I’ll mourn the probable demise of this franchise, as neither the 2018 nor the 2023 movies offer actual entertainment.
After COVID made their book club meetings virtual, long-time pals Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Sharon (Candice Bergen) and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) finally reunite in person. Vivian comes with news: she recently got engaged to Arthur (Don Johnson).
This leads the four ladies on a bachelorette trip to Italy. Along the way, they experience a series of adventures, romantic and otherwise.
The 2018 Club boasted a terrific cast, and obviously Chapter does the same. The four leads offer great star power and a supporting cast with Johnson, Craig T. Nelson, Andy Garcia and others adds to this glow.
In theory, I appreciate the existence of movies like Chapter. For too many years, movies treated older actresses as grannies and not much more.
The two Book Club flicks allow for more dimensionality. Their four leads all now range in age from Steenburgen’s 70 to Fonda’s 86, and it lets them to form real characters, not just one-dimensional “old ladies”.
Well, that again falls into the “in theory” category. While the two movies grant their four main roles the room to become more than simple stereotypes, they don’t provide real range.
Chapter devolves its roles into basic traits. It never permits them to grow beyond their basic notions and become truly interesting.
To a large degree, the Book Club movies exist as fantasies for older females. They show the wonderful bonds of friendship and how AARP eligibility doesn’t dampen one’s life.
The films bring idealized versions of life for the older folks, and that’s fine – once more, in theory. Unfortunately, Chapter continues the first movie’s trend and sticks with a mix of crass jokes and phony sentiment.
None of the film’s humor ever seems clever. Instead, we get a seemingly endless array of smutty wisecracks and jabs about the issues related to aging.
These fail to deliver even rudimentary humor. As hard as the actors try to sell the material, the laughs never appear.
The Italian setting provides the main difference to separate Chapter from the first Club tale – for better and for worse. For better, the film makes Italy look amazing and creates some lovely photography.
For worse, Chapter uses its setting as a crutch. More of a travelogue that feels sponsored by the Italian tourism bureau, the movie does make me want to visit the country.
However, appealing visuals don’t create an appealing narrative. Chapter comes largely devoid of plot, and it can often feel improvised.
I don’t think the actors made up the dialogue and “story” as they went, but it sure comes across that way. This means a jerky
“narrative” that just bobbles along until the inevitable sentimental ending.
Ugh. Chapter includes three Oscar-winning actors as well as three more who earned nominations, and it utterly wastes them with tripe and tacky nonsense.
