By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Bill Holderman
Cast: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Andy García, Don Johnson, Richard Dreyfuss, Craig T. Nelson, Alicia Silverstone, Katie Aselton, Wallace Shawn, Tommy Dewey, Mircea Monroe and Ed Begley Jr.
Rating: Excellent.
Bill Holderman makes his directorial debut with “Book Club” and this can be the beginning of a very promising career.
The story centers in a group of female friends formed by Diane (Diane Keaton), Vivian (Jane Fonda), Sharon (Candice Bergen) and Carol (Mary Steenburgen) who spend their lives attending a book club.
In one of their usual meetings, Vivian will bring “Fifty Shades of Grey”. While they are beginning to read the book, the lives of the four friends will change forever and will know the true meaning of life and to cherish every single day of your life like it´s the last one.
“Book Club” is a movie that I consider very original due to the screenplay that was written by Bill Holderman and Erin Simms. Both of them wrote incredible and original characters who do have a lot of internal conflicts that were very well triggered in this film.
Besides writing the screenplay, Bill Holderman did a very good job in directing this film and I was surprised due to the cast he had at his disposal. Holderman is a very smart director who made wise decisions and knew how to get out of the best of his cast.
For a first time director he was outstanding and normally when filmmakers are directing an A list cast like this one there can be a tendency where they feel the pressure and sometimes things don´t go out that well.
In this case was the opposite and of course what really helped was the fact of having an original screenplay at his disposal that he wrote with a first time writer in Erin Simms.
You can tell that “Book Club” is a film that has a woman´s touch and it does remind me of films directed by Nancy Meyers, who is one of the masters of this kind of films and the late Nora Ephron who also made this kind of movies.
The first preview that I saw of “Book Club” I thought that it was going to be directed by Meyers but it was not the case here. I was kind of skeptical when I first saw the trailers of the film but then as always I give the benefit of doubt and I had a wonderful time.
The chemistry between Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen is what really makes the film and is such a joy and pleasure watching this four women on the screen.
When you see normally this kind of films the characters are normally a group of men instead of women. Here both Bill Holderman and Erin Simms broke with those rules and created a very good and entertaining film.
I cannot remember when was the last time I laughed this hard in a movie but I can say that from beginning to end I couldn´t stop laughing.
I can guarantee that you will have an amazing time watching “Book Club” and it will bring you a huge smile on your face when you watch this movie.
That being said “Book Club” is one the biggest surprises of this year. I had an amazing time watching and I highly recommend it.