Book Club: The Next Chapter - Over-70 Sexcapades and an Awful Lot of Prosecco

By Jim Slotek

Rating: C-plus

Box office of $40 million for the recent light comedy 80 For Brady - in which legends Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin fan-stalked Tom Brady all the way to the Super Bowl – doesn’t sound like much in a super-hero world.

But consider that almost everyone who paid to see that movie would have been of retirement age, a demo that almost never goes to the multiplex any more, for myriad reasons. And every one of them had the option of waiting a bit and streaming it at home.

Steenburgen, Fonda, Keaton and Bergen, living la dolce vita.

All of which bodes reasonably well for the even slighter and less witty Book Club: The Next Chapter, with its cast of Fonda (again), Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, looking for love in all the right places (Rome, Venice, etc.).

Instead of 80 For Brady, you can call this one 70/80 For Tuscany.

The two movies even have essentially the same premise. Vivacious lifelong friends, now well past retirement age, convince each other to embark on an adventure for, maybe, the last time. In this case, it’s a (hopefully) naughty bachelorette party/Italian vacation to mark the decision by Vivian (Fonda) to marry her once-and-reunited boyfriend Arthur (Don Johnson).

Let me say at this point that, fun as it is to see Fonda still playing the sex symbol at 85, it’s also nice to see the likes of erstwhile “Sexiest Man Alive” Johnson playing his age, along with the likes of Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson and Giancarlo Giannini, doing their best to keep up with the ladies.

Also note that no books were harmed (or even opened much) in Book Club: The Next Chapter. In 2018’s original Book Club, the literary ladies were, um inspired by a reading of Fifty Shades of Grey, with libidinous results.

But the libido persists in The Next Chapter, with myriad cheesy sex jokes as they encounter and remark on nude male antiquities (“Be fair. He’s a thousand years old and still hard as a rock.”). On their own, retired judge Sharon (Bergen) gets the most “action” from not one, but two suitors, a retired professor (Hugh Quarshie), and a police officer (Giannini), whose jurisdiction seems to cover everywhere the ladies go in Italy.

To be clear, Book Club: The Next Chapter is not a good movie by any standards except for its appeal to audiences old enough to fondly remember every cast member in their prime (I’m raising my hand here). Anyone born after Murphy Brown will see a predictable, forgettable series of non-adventures (there’s a petty theft, a night in a lockup, misunderstood texts, lots of second-guessing whether the universe has something against the marriage, many glasses of prosecco and a saccharine ending).

Okay, zoomer. No argument here about the contrivances and the lack of much of anything happening en route to the last act. But there is a tone of sweetness to that act, in which love conquers all in all directions.

And what heck, it’s Italy. Director Bill Holderman could have shot that beautifully with his eyes closed.

Book Club: The Next Chapter. Directed by Bill Holderman. Starring Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. In theatres Friday, May 12.