*** (out of ****)
Starring Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, John Alderton, Linda Bassett, Geraldine James, and Philip Glenister
Directed by Nigel Cole & written by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi
2003
108 min PG13
As the baby boomers barrel their way into—and in some cases, out of—middle age, and as their offspring’s female role models get younger and thinner, the beauty of old age is getting taken seriously. Movies usually show persons of middle-age and beyond from a child’s perspective, as lusting wistfully after their lost youth, as remembering times gone by, or as authority figures who, out of envy, are ogres to the young. The message is clear: only youth is worth keeping, and old age is insufferable. But there’s no wistful remembrance of times past for the Calendar Girls (except for the lost husband). These women are committed, not to reclaiming youth, but to living well where they are now.
“Calendar Girls” is based loosely on a real story of a group of women from an English village, who raised money for leukemia research by posing nude for a calendar. The urge strikes them, not out of the blue, but when one of their husbands dies of the disease, and so they decide to tastefully conceal their naughty bits “Austin Powers’” style behind tea, crumpets, bottles of jam, and other matronly elements of the English countryside. The ladies are all at least in their fifties and belong to a women’s group of some sort, the kind which possibly originated in one of the World Wars as a way to keep a man-deprived village running. (To cynical 21st century eyes, the organization seems to have outlived its usefulness, and the movie has some fun with that.) Much to the women’s surprise, the calendars prove to be a success, not only in jolly old England, but in America as well.
The movie plays like a “Full Monty” for girls, swapping bittersweet moments with chances for the gals to be mischievous. The girls are headed by Helen Mirren (“Gosford Park”), that bastion of middle-aged hotness, and Julie Walters (mother to the Weasleys in the “Harry Potter” films), who plays her newly-widowed best friend. They are joined by plenty of familiar faces, even if you can’t say exactly where you’ve spotted them before. Screenwriters Juliette Tawhidi and Tim Firth and director Nigel Cole have a lot of fun with nice women tittering at their own naughtiness, with Mirren’s son being weirded out by it all, and with the poor photographer (Philip Glenister) who’s stuck having to take pictures of the unruly bunch. I also liked how Mirren and Walters could hang out with their husbands. There was something pleasant about watching the four of them shooting the breeze and talk about flowers; I guess I was worried that one day my friends and I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore.
The girls hit a snag with the local president of the women’s organization (Geraldine James), whom we can’t blame for being apprehensive about the whole thing, and the quicky, flavor-of-the-month fame that ensues takes its toll on them. Movies about women who become devoted to a cause usually include irate husbands and children wondering why their dinner isn’t ready, or some emotional equivalent of that. As the chief troublemaker, the usually regal Helen Mirren is absolutely floppy, bouncing around the village, stirring up trouble, snickering at the president of the women’s organization, and freely using booze to motivate her wary accomplices. She and Walters hold the movie together, and while we might not have enough time to get all the other ladies’ names straight, they each have a moment or two in the sun.
While pornography, which glorifies exotic, young, and impossibly beautiful women, denigrates the average woman, the daring of the aging ladies of “Calendar Girls” celebrates all of our wrinkly, ordinary destinies. The beauty of youth will pass, but that just means there’s a different kind of beauty waiting. What a sweet little movie.
Finished January 11, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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