315. Book Club; movie review

BOOK CLUB
Cert 12A
104 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate sex references, innuendo, infrequent strong language

Four elderly women talking about sex for more than an hour and a half, doesn't sound too promising, does it?
But now that Mrs W and I are so old that we qualify for seniors' golf and Saga insurance, we found Book Club more entertaining than we had imagined.
This is largely down to a cast who are A-list and energetic beyond their years.
Indeed, I was left wondering whether one of them, Jane Fonda, had placed them on her famous exercise regimes.
Book Club centres on four close friends (Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, Fonda and Mary Steenburgen) who have been meeting every month for decades to drink wine, discuss a book and chat about their lives.
The novel which inspires septuagenarian sex talk is Fifty Shades of Grey which seems to have released women from shackles (or put them in them) all over the world.
Aside of causing a right good giggle between the pals, it acts as stimulant to reinvigorate their romantic lives.
So, Fonda's character, who has been a commitment-phobe, is tempted into a dalliance with an ex-boyfriend (Don Johnson).
Meanwhile, Keaton plays a widow who is set on the road to romance by falling over a fellow plane passenger (Andy Garcia) while en route to visit her children.
Steenburgen is a frustrated wife who feels the spark has gone out of the her marriage to a shy husband  (Craig T. Nelson) and Bergen is a federal judge who has been divorced for 18 years and has consigned sex to the past.
Reading Fifty Shades switches on their respective mojos and discussing the book is not only funny but helps them rekindle their youth.
I have to confess that I expected Book Club to be corny because so many films fail when their cast is made up of old stagers trying to act young.
However, they exude warmth and prompt some good giggles.
But, be warned, Bill Holderman's movie does include scenes of old people snogging and being more than a little crude!

Reasons to watch: Great cast having fund
Reasons to avoid: Old people talking about sex

Laughs: Six
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Director quote - Bill Holderman: "I had heard about what these books (Fifty Shades) were about and they started to catch the zeitgeist and it was like “You know who’s going to like these? My mother!” And then Erin (co-writer) was the one who pointed out what an inappropriate gift it was for a son to give."

The big question - Are you ever too old for sex?

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