Film Review: Book Club's next chapter is charming, but saccharine
Book Club 2: The Next Chapter
- Book Club: The Next Chapter
- ★★☆☆☆
Age shall not wither them, nor custom stale their infinity variety, if we might paraphrase Shakespeare on (15A) — having survived the Covid pandemic, book club friends Vivian (Jane Fonda), Diane (Diane Keaton), Carol (Mary Steenburgen) and Sharon (Candice Bergen) are understandably keen to get out into the world, see one another in person and embrace life again. By happy coincidence, Vivian announces her engagement to long-term beau Arthur (Don Johnson), which gives the ladies all the reason they might need to embark on a bachelorette trip to Italy.
What follows, alas, would likely cause Shakespeare to rework the ‘infinite variety’ bit: as the women soak up the sights of Rome, Venice and Tuscany, their ostensibly picaresque adventures quickly grow very predictable. Much prosecco is consumed; wedding dresses are modelled; harmless flirtations with old flames give rise to unintended consequences.
All of which is very charming if a touch overly sweet — the quartet tend to bill and coo at one another like a small flock of feather-ruffled doves — but the plot really could have done with a little tension or an obstacle or two for the ladies to overcome (things do occasionally go wrong, but never so badly that they can’t be smoothed over by an inspiring quote from Paulo Coelho’s ).
All the leading ladies are in fine form here, although Candice Bergen’s recently retired Sharon steals the show as the pragmatist of the bunch, her no-nonsense approach to living life to the full grounding her friends’ flights of fancy.
In fact, it all adds up to pretty much the ideal book club experience: a jaunt to Italy, lashings of fizz, a little romance to spice things up, and hardly a book to be seen.
(cinema release)
