Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)

 Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)

 

3/10

 

Starring

Diane Keaton

Jane Fonda

Candice Bergen

Mary Steenburgen

 

Directed by Bill Holderman

 

You can tell that there was no useful reason for this movie to be done. The plot was a wasted attempt to make money from a first part that I liked. The all-female lead actors carried the first movie, whose script was not of the best quality. They did their best here, but the script here was of an even worse quality than the first movie. The first movie made almost ten times its production cost, so there is no studio who will not want to try again.

More than half of the movie felt like the characters were joyriding in Italy. Why will I be made to pay to sit down and watch what looked like a travel vlog sponsored by the Italian government?

The movie takes place after the ending of the first movie, since the first one was in 2018, 2019 covid hit. The friends kept in touch via the internet and making video calls. The covid period is over, and they can finally meet in person. They decided to do something that they planned years ago, go on a trip to Italy. Vivian (Jane Fonda) reveals to the others that she is engaged to be married, so the four decided to make the trip have an additional twist of a bachelorette party.

As you will expect in movies like this, they wasted too much time just moving about because the writers were too lazy to give these talented actors something to do.

Then as you would expect, someone got robbed, someone flirted, and they got into trouble that needed more talk and persuasion to get them to the desired end of a wedding. I wish I did not waste time watching this, this movie is so poor that it is best you just go look for the plot online and save yourself the time.

The movie made the characters feel old to watch, and it was so slow. Things happened and reactions to them were so slow that I wonder if the director was afraid to say, “CUT! More life people.”

In the end, it was an unrealistic ride of four older women who seem to say they still got it and the whole world bent about in all ways to prove their point. There is nothing wrong in having self believe, but this movie could have been about more than just that and an impromptu bachelorette party that just did not fit in to the story.