![]() This one has location porn (the architectural splendors of Rome, the mystic majesty of Venice, the Edenic tranquility of Tuscany), alcohol porn (late-night rounds of Prosecco and grappa), and, in one shopping sequence, wedding-dress porn. The original film reveled in its real-estate porn. A kind of seniors-go-wild romantic travelogue meets Katharine Hepburn in “Summertime.”īut once the friends arrive in Italy, “The Next Chapter” turns into a series of staid and unremarkable adventures. Given the lush Continental setting, you could easily envision a film that was “Eat, Pray, Love” x 4 + 16 added decades of life experience. The premise of “The Next Chapter” is that our heroines, after too much hemming and hawing, decide to follow their bliss, live a little dangerously and take a senior bachelorette voyage to Italy, all to celebrate Vivian’s impending wedding. These are not exactly situations and conflicts destined to erupt into explosive comic drama. ![]() ![]() And Bergen’s Sharon? Having reconnected with her amorous side, she has now retired from the bench, which has left her at loose ends. He came through it fine, but she’s so frightened of losing him that she’s got him on a joyless diet and a general vibe of overprotected severity that’s messing with their mostly idyllic marriage. Nelson’s crusty old bear Bruce, who has had a heart attack. The real conflict that besets her has to do with her husband, Craig T. Steenburgen’s Carol, always the most settled and content of the four, has lost her restaurant in the pandemic’s economic downturn, but she’s fine with that change of life. Keaton’s Diane (yes, that’s the character’s name), with her vibrant anxiety and Annie Hall-at-70 wardrobe, had found love with Andy Garcia’s smiley chivalrous airline pilot Mitchell, and if he seems a bit too good to be true, with his outlandishly picturesque Arizona estate, here’s a formula-movie news flash: He’s still that good! Fonda’s Vivian, with her chic shag hair and spiky wit to match, had found love with her long-ago paramour, played by a very winning Don Johnson the two are now set to be married. We get to see a lot more of them in “ Book Club: The Next Chapter,” though if you’re asking where this sequel can go, given the happy endings that greeted all four characters in the first film, you’d be right to wonder. ![]() It gave voice to thoughts and feelings we need to see more of. Yet like all guilty pleasures that deliver, it exuded a glow of comfortable amusement, and by the end you were glad it existed. “Book Club” wasn’t a good romantic comedy, exactly it was almost designed to be a guilty pleasure. The four women, played by Jane Fonda (hedonistic but emotionally distant hotel owner), Diane Keaton (newly widowed and relationship-shy, with grown daughters who want to move her across the country), Mary Steenburgen (happily married restauranteur, but her husband is a stuffed shirt who’s only getting stuffier), and Candice Bergen (federal judge who hasn’t had a date in 18 years), were like characters in search of a better life, and maybe a better movie. And yet…the movie, in its story-parts-falling-into-place-far-too-neatly “Look how bawdy we’re being!” way, allowed its quartet of iconic stars to inject an overly cute and telegraphed scenario with just enough personality and soul to get by.
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