Book Club

A Second Coming of Age

Book Club (2018) is a fun movie. Light hearted, and unwilling to shy away from talking about hard topics. I love that in our current generation we are talking more about sex, relationships, peri-menopause, menopause, and trying to demystify aging. This movie does this in a beautiful way.

We follow the lives of four friends who started a book club when they were young, and never stopped. Diane (Diane Keaton), is a widower with 2 grown daughters living in Arizona. Sharon (Candace Bergen) is a federal judge who divorced her husband after realizing he wasn’t intellectually stimulating. While the couple had a son Sharon seems more than happy to replace sex with more work. Vivian (Jane Fonda) is a business woman first. She manages to get her orgasms in a love ‘em and leave ‘em way. Carol (Mary Steenburgen) plays a woman still married to the love of her life. Bruce (Craig T. Nelson) just retired. Carol runs a restaurant and an annual fundraiser, and takes pride that her and Bruce have not let age slow them down.

Vivian decides that the book club needs to add some spice to the pile and suggests the first book in a famous series by E.L. James. Their book club rules appear to be one person buys 4 copies of a book and they each get a turn picking what will be read, no discussions, no vetoes. They give a series of funny interactions where each person is dealing with reading the book in their own way. The book causes all of them to take a look at their lives and reassess what they may be wanting, or dare I say, needing.

While the focus of this movie is definitely friendship, there are several romance angles that occur. Diane meets Mitchell (Andy Garcia) and is navigating romance after her husband died, and her daughter’s interference. Vivian runs into an ex-flame, Arthur (Don Johnson), and decides to explore if there is anything there. Sharon is forced to interact with her ex, Tom (Ed Begley Jr.), while trying to get back into the dating game. Mary isn’t left out of the romance loop as she and Bruce are trying to find their spark after Bruce’s retirement.

This movie brings to attention many things that we seem unwilling to talk about. Sex, for those who are young and old. Peri-menopause and Menopause. Women choosing to put a career before a relationship. Women choosing to have a relationship and a career, but no children. These are all valid options and no one should be shamed for whatever choice they make. But I appreciated talking about how each choice had affected the person. Their friends were always there with them, but each choice led to a different life.