Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)
Released in time for Mother’s Day, Book Club: The Next Chapter is a fair to middling sequel to the beloved original, that at least possessed a spark of originality.
If you remember, the original Book Club (2018) was about four women of a certain age, whose love life got a new kick after reading Fifty Shades of Grey for their book club.
The movie was an unexpected success, grossing over a hundred million dollars worldwide, so a sequel was definitely in order.
However, it’s not that easy to make lightning strike twice, so writer-director Bill Holderman and writer Erin Simms apply one of the first rules of sequel writing if you don’t have any real intrinsic motivation: send the heroines on a holiday to Europe, in this case Italy.
There is always the landscape to make the picture look good.
And so Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen cross the Atlantic for (at first) a Roman Holiday, in search of La Dolce Vita, before heading to Venice and ending up Under The Tuscan Sun.
The reason being that Viv (Fonda) has finally agreed to marry her boyfriend Arthur (Don Johnson) and this whole post-pandemic enterprise is her bachelorette party.
It’s true, along the way they encounter some very real annoyances, like having their luggage stolen, because well… the Italian railways haven’t employed luggage carriers since 1976, but apart from that it’s mostly smooth sailing.
At least, until the final part of the movie. But since Book Club: The Next Chapter doesn’t contain a lot of surprises, I won’t spoil what happens.
Mind you, I’m not even complaining that much. I saw Book Club: The Next Chapter at a public screening and I know full well I’m not the target audience for a movie like this.
So I just went along with the story, politely chuckling at the little femme-jokes that are littered through the script and simply enjoying spending some time with four great actresses, even though their combined talents aren’t particularly stretched to their absolute limits here.
The movie takes its cue from The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, which makes the reader dream about turning their possibilities into reality.
If your (or your mother’s) dream is to escape the troubles of the world by escaping to Italy for 100 minutes, please do so. It’s harmless fun.
If you don’t, well, just don’t.