Book Club: The Next Chapter
Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen return for a smutty, limp travelogue without laughs.
In billing order: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen
“I love anything that’s falling apart more than I am,” says Candice Bergen, admiring the magnificent architecture of ancient Rome. There is a note of irony here, as Bergen’s Sharon, a former federal judge, is the only character in the central quartet who betrays a scintilla of intelligence. The quartet, completed by Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Mary Steenburgen, are lifelong friends and have been distraught by their physical separation during lockdown. And so we are treated to a series of jokey split-screen Zoom calls in which the women display their inanity, with Diane Keaton’s Diane inadvertently transforming herself into a virtual potato. Considering that these actresses have all had such illustrious careers, it is heart-breaking to see them slumming it in such mediocre material. Is this really the Mary Steenburgen of Melvin and Howard and Cross Creek, the Diane Keaton of Annie Hall and Manhattan, the Candice Bergen of Carnal Knowledge and Starting Over and the Jane Fonda of Klute and Coming Home? In fifty years’ time might we be subjected to the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Florence Pugh, Margot Robbie and Emma Stone playing four old dears in a similarly lazy and syrupy sitcom?
Shortly after the pandemic and five years after Book Club (when the girlfriends discovered the indignities of Fifty Shades of Grey), Jane Fonda’s Vivian has got herself "fiancéed" to toy boy Don Johnson. It’s the last chance for the girls to let their hair down and with Covid a thing of the past (apparently), Mary Steenburgen’s Carol suggests they have a hen party – or “bachelorette” – in Rome. And, as only rich Americans in Europe can, they take a decidedly fluid trip to the Italian capital, where tickets and timetables take a back seat to the various adventures. And once the touristy montage and clichéd songs have abated (Bette Midler delivers ‘Mambo Italiano’), the friends make lurid comments about the statues of naked men dotted about the city (eyeing up the credentials of one such, Candice Bergen quips, “In his defence, it is a little chilly in here”). Then up pops Giancarlo Giannini – Ms Bergen’s co-star from A Night Full of Rain (1978) – as an octogenarian police commissioner whose jurisdiction seems to include Rome, Venice and Florence. It’s the flouting of such plausibility that undercuts The Next Chapter at every turn, as if logic and reason have no place in this celebration of autumnal romance and friendship.
The real tragedy is that the actresses on show are good enough – or used to be – to tackle the real issues of ageing that could make for something marginally more credible. Of course, Bill Holderman and Erin Simms’ script never aspires to be anything as brutal as Michael Haneke’s Amour, let alone to touch the bittersweet nuances of Richard Eyre's Allelujah. The principals here embrace old age with such gusto that they make the process seem like a walk in the park. All you need is another facelift, a glass of prosecco and a song on the soundtrack to diminish anything as forbidding as frailty or dementia. The film is a tragi-com for all the wrong reasons, a toe-curling puff of candyfloss straightjacketed by cliché and schmaltz. Of course, there is plenty of room for romantic comedies about fighting off old age, but a spark of wit and believability would not have gone amiss. When the Ghanaian-born Hugh Quarshie turns up for a bit of slap and tickle, one is reminded what a good actor can do with such flaccid material.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Giancarlo Giannini, Hugh Quarshie, Vincent Riotta, Andy García, Don Johnson, Giovanni Esposito, Giampiero Judica.
Dir Bill Holderman, Pro Bill Holderman and Erin Simms, Screenplay Bill Holderman and Erin Simms, Ph Andrew Dunn, Pro Des Stefano Maria Ortolani, Ed Doc Crotzer, Music Tom Howe, Costumes Stefano De Nardis, Dialect coach Sergio Sciaretti.
Makeready/Fifth Season/Apartment Story-Universal Pictures.
107 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 12 May 2023. Cert. 12A.
