Book Club: The Next Chapter

Harrison Ford, 80, is back as Indiana Jones in one of the biggest movies of this coming summer. Robert De Niro, who turns 80 in the summer, is reuniting once again with Martin Scorsese in a crime drama sure to rank among cineastes’ most-anticipated 2023 releases. Septuagenarians Bill Murray and Michael Douglas turned in supporting roles in the new Ant-Man movie, the top-grossing live-action film of the year. Ian McShane, also 80, has a focal role in John Wick: Chapter 4. Hollywood never seems to shut the door on male actors of advancing age. Outside of Meryl Streep, though, their female counterparts don’t have as many opportunities.

Take the four returning leads of Book Club: The Next Chapter. Ranging in age from 70 (Mary Steenburgen) to 85 (Jane Fonda), these women are among the most accomplished in entertainment. And their list of options appears to be enjoying retirement or making a sequel to Book Club, the 2018 comedy that had little to do with reading. For some women of a certain age, this follow-up is sure to be welcomed, for it exists as the cinematic equivalent of comfort food for a demographic that the film world has little interest in courting.

There’s little reason to feel sorry for Ms. Fonda, Ms. Steenburgen, and fellow stars Diane Keaton and Candice Bergen. Not only do they get to spend more time together, but they get to do it in Italy, because The Next Chapter sends the four of them there for a bachelorette vacation since Vivian (Fonda) is finally going to tie the knot with Arthur (Don Johnson). Filmed on the most picturesque days with the softest of natural light, the friends set aside their routines and worries to indulge in some fine art, great food, a little shopping, and no shortage of wine.

As on the first film, the comedy is supplied by Bill Holderman and Erin Simms, who share screenwriting credit while Holderman alone directs. Seemingly a couple in their mid-40s, Holderman and Simms do not appear to have any special insight into what getting old is like. So they just come up with sitcom-quality jokes for their extremely seasoned stars to make the most of. Carol (Steenburgen) has to deal with the closing of her restaurant and a husband (Craig T. Nelson) who has suffered a minor heart attack. Sharon (Bergen), a newly-retired judge, is adjusting to life after the courtroom. And Vivian worries that any setback experienced abroad might be an omen warning her to stay unwed.

The sequel’s opening moments address the one thing that’s been on all of our minds since March of 2020: how the Book Club ladies endured the pandemic. The answer, of course, is frequent Zoom group video chats. As Diane struggles to shed the filter that turns her head into a potato, you wonder just how long this movie was in production. The script and filming could not have taken long and even at their age, it’s tough to imagine these healthy-looking seniors giving any insurance company great pause.

These are the places a mind wanders while watching the second Book Club. This is a movie that is squarely aimed at a demographic that I’ll never belong to and I certainly do not begrudge it for that. In this day and age, any movie geared at adults is welcome, even one that has all the comic sophistication of an early 2000s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen comedy.

Venice and Tuscany are as photogenic as ever and that helps to cushion the blows of the material’s broad inanity. So too do the lifetimes of goodwill earned by these talented women over movies as beloved as The Godfather, Annie Hall, Klute, Gandhi, The First Wives Club, Step Brothers, and so on. One day not long from now, we won’t be able to see any of these ladies in a new movie. Even right now, moviegoing trends and studio revenue models are pushing projects like this away from theaters and on to streaming services, which are as 18-to-49-oriented as the rest of the entertainment industry.

Amidst the rampant PG-13 innuendo, with Bergen delivering every joke like she’s setting up Roman candles and the others coasting on their signature charm, the movie saves a little screentime for some men you might well recognize from other works, including Italy’s Giancarlo Giannini (Casino Royale) and Vincent Riotta (Under the Tuscan Sun) and Highlander‘s Hugh Quarshie.

I wish there was more meaning or achievement to unearth in The Next Chapter, which opens with a quote from Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist as one of the only nods to the first part of the title. I wish I could say that these actresses have added to their legacies and have set the stage for an even better international adventure in Book Club 3. What I can say is that it is absolutely no accident this movie will be playing in theaters in time for Mother’s Day.