Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)
When we last left the ladies of the Book Club, they had just finished reading Fifty Shades of Gray and had made several important changes to their lives, which, if anyone hasn’t seen the first movie, I won’t spoil too much. Suffice it to say, The Next Chapter is yet another celebration of lifelong friendships, aging gracefully, and never losing one’s humor or wonder.
The Next Chapter starts with the ladies during the COVID quarantine, having chats over Zoom and trying to fill the endless hours in isolation. Carol’s restaurant closes, sending her into early retirement. Sharon makes an ill-fated attempt at adopting a parrot, who quickly gets re-homed, so she adopts a cat instead. Diane has moved in with Mitchell. Vivian is a fixture in Arthur’s New York apartment.
When the ladies are finally able to get back together, they hit on the idea of taking a trip to Italy, and after a few bouts of overthinking they’re off to Rome. It’s the perfect opportunity, because Vivian and Arthur have just gotten engaged, so of course there has to be a bachelorette party. Everything goes swimmingly until their luggage gets stolen right before they hop on the train to Venice.
From there it’s a madcap series of misadventures, handsome strangers, meeting old friends, and rearranging priorities.
The scenery in the film is, of course, breathtaking, and it’s more than obvious the ladies really do go to Italy. The vicarity factor is off the charts, especially in the city scenes—every pockmark in the old bricks and stones and every grain in the statues can be seen and it’s pretty amazing. We can point right to the spot on the Spanish Steps where Audrey Hepburn ate gelato in Roman Holiday.
That said, the movie has the same problems that the first Book Club movie does, which is that the plot loses momentum about halfway through the second act, only in this case, instead of fizzling it just crams more and more elements in until I had to wonder when these poor women would catch a break. How many nights, for instance, can they spend in jail? No, I’m not going to elaborate on that. By the end it just felt a little exhausting and it didn’t need to be, because these characters are so comfortable with each other that all they need is to be turned loose and they’re fine.
Speaking of the characters, unfortunately they were drawn so thinly that I struggled to remember their names. The movie kind of puts itself in a tough spot because Candice, Diane, Mary, and Jane are larger than life and therefore need strong characters. Instead, they seemed to be playing themselves throughout the whole movie, or maybe other characters from credits past. The wonderful Diane Keaton’s trouser suits kept me thinking of Annie Hall instead of Book Club. Candice Bergen gave me Murphy Brown vibes except that Sharon is a judge. Jane Fonda and Mary Steenburgen were Jane Fonda and Mary Steenburgen. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it just kills the immersion a little bit.
What matters most about this movie is that it’s fun. I saw it with a packed house of seniors, which is unusual for a Tuesday morning, and they roared and chortled the whole way through. Everyone, including me, walked out smiling.
Book Club: The Next Chapter is currently in theaters. Rated PG-13.
My grade: B
Principal Cast: Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Diane Keaton, Don Johnson, Andy Garcia, Craig T. Nelson, Giancarlo Giannini, Hugh Quarshie, Vincent Riotta, Giovanni Esposito
Directed by Bill Holdeman.
Written by Bill Holdeman and Erin Simms.