Book Club (2018)

Older females, book club members reading the Fifty Shades soft porn chick-lit series, are inspired by Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele's exploits to take on the challenges of modern romance, embarking upon online dating, initiating sex again with long-since-celibate partners, rekindling past romances and daring to love again after grief, and it is pretty funny in a very minor way - my 79-year-old mum particularly found it a fun watch.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Paris Can Wait (2016)

The Trip series was definitely referenced during intial pitches for director Eleanor Coppola's first non-documentary feature, the extremely gentle romantic comedy Paris Can Wait that too contrives a reason, the flimsiest, for its main character, Diane Lane's Anne, to be driven on a restaurant roadtrip across France, from Cannes to Paris, by her husband's film-producing partner Jacques, and while the pair gorge on local food and wine and visit historical sites and museums, they relax, laugh, and share intimate moments - but no Michael Caine impressions - and she starts to wonder if she and her always-too-busy husband will ever get to do the same.

★★★☆☆

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The First Wives Club (1996)

Three women played by Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton are jilted by their husbands and so band together to exact revenge in this comedy popular among middle-aged women, mostly funny, at least for its first half, but let down by an unrewarding last half and unnecessary voiceover narration (probably to emulate the voice of the bestselling book upon which the movie is based.)

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Something's Gotta Give (2003)

In this movie-length laundry detergeant commercial, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Amanda Peet and Keanu Reeves, clad in brilliant whites, float around what looks like Martha Stewart's house or an IKEA showroom and engage in romantic dalliances, come to terms with old age, get over their age biases and conquer their body hang-ups.

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Morning Glory (2010)

Harrison Ford (great in romantic comedies - Working Girl, for example), Rachel McAdams (perfectly likeable lead actress) and Diane Keaton (who doesn't love her?) add up to naught in this unfocused um, romcom (?) about Becky Fuller, a down-on-her-luck executive producer hired to repair broken breakfast tv show, DayBreak, but apart from general disunity, we never learn what core problems Becky needs to solve nor how exactly she solves them (she sacks two people but otherwise appears to simply bungle her way) and there is zero romance (Patrick Wilson's role as love interest is completely drama-,  interest- and purpose-free), and the entire movie, like Becky Fuller, runs around in circles gabbing madly.

★☆☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS