Calendar Girls (2003)

COMEDY: (2003, PG-13) (Touchstone Pictures) (1 hr, 48 min) WARNING: This review reveals plot surprises. In a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, the Woman’s Institute (AKA WI) is a club of the local women that has never been adventurous but provides mutual support. Among the members are long-time best friends Chris Harper and Annie Clarke. John, Annie’s husband, develops leukemia and dies in a few months. Chris encourages Annie to join her and the WI to raise a little money for a new couch in the hospital waiting room where they both spent uncomfortable weeks. Chris has the radical idea that instead of featuring flowers or churches on the annual calendar, the local women should pose (tastefully) nude. After getting over their own fears and finding a local photographer, the calendar goes to press. Marie, the WI’s conservative chairperson goes to a national convention and tries to block the calendar. However Chris and Annie make a direct and successful appeal to the membership. The calendar is both a success and a sensation. They get a call from Hollywood just as Chris’ husband is quoted in the tabloids as not having sex anymore and their son is arrested for drug use. Chris stays behind while the others go to Hollywood and appear on the Jay Leno show. Chris, having resolved her difficulties, joins them but objects to a nude commercial they are about to film. This causes a falling out between Chris and Annie. After their return to England, they renew their relationship and find that they have raised over $500,000 for a cancer unit for the hospital.

VIOLENCE/SCARINESS: We see John after various cancer treatments including hair loss after chemotherapy. None of this works and he dies. There is a funeral scene.

CRIMES: Adultery (U), Underage Drinking (U).

MORALS, ISSUES & VALUES: At the center of the film are a group of middle-aged women who, for charity, pose (tastefully) nude for a calendar and discover not only their own beauty and power, but that they have inspired other women to look at themselves differently than dictated by a youth-oriented society. John, in his message to his community, states that the local women are like flowers and become more interesting as they grow older. Chris has doubts about small-town British contemporary mores and questions women’s role. She keeps trying to bring her friends out of their shells. At one point she enters a store-bought cake into a contest (and wins!) – she treats it as a lark. In fact, when she confesses, the other women are so structured that they cannot believe her and think she has told a joke. She lets her success go to her head and begins to speak and plan for the group. While Chris has some family difficulties because of her new-found fame, all the men are supportive of their wives and never question or doubt them, with the exception of Ruth’s husband who is having an adulterous affair (about as close as the film comes to a villain). Jem is embarrassed by his mother’s appearance in the calendar and throws the papers he’s supposed to deliver off a cliff because of the article about his mother. Diversity Issues: All the major characters are white. Blacks appear not only as porters and servants but also as police officers and other responsible positions. Language: One scatological reference, many anatomical references, some sexual innuendo and talk, some mild profanity, and considerable British slang.

SEXUALITY, GENDER ISSUES & BODY FUNCTIONS: Single parent and nuclear families. Traditional gender roles. Chris’ and John’s marriage and deep love make his death easier and assure her emotional survival. At the center of the film are eleven middle-aged women who pose (tastefully) nude for a charity calendar. While it is clear they are nude, their genitals and breasts are covered by objects or their arms except an accidental photograph in which a breast is fully exposed – briefly seen. Jem is becoming interested in women and his mother discovers a “large breast” magazine hidden in his room; she is very understanding and simply puts it back with a smile. One of the women’s husband is philandering; when she confronts him and his girlfriend, she is suddenly freed from what seems to be a tremendous burden. One of the women has a tattoo. A rock band member has multiple tattoos.

SUBSTANCES: Jem gets arrested for smoking what the police assume is marijuana but turns out to be oregano. Considerable beer drinking in a pub (while the men are waiting for their wives to be photographed). Considerable wine drinking (from bottles to gather courage for the photo sessions). Wine with dinner, champagne in celebration. A bit of background smoking. Jem and a teenage friend drink wine.

COMMENTS: A truly heartwarming film about friendship, love, breaking boundaries, self-expression, and healthy empowerment. The death of a loved one is treated as a renewal of life. A community works together to establish a cancer unit at a local hospital and cures their own psychological and social ills as much as they treat future cancer victims. On the downside, the film introduces many issues – especially in the last third – that are promptly dropped without serious approach or resolution: Jem’s coming of age and curiosity about sex and drugs, Chris’ and Annie’s relationship and the effect of fame, and so on. In addition, the changing source of Chris’ motivation – is she doing this for husband John or for herself – is never really addressed. And, the most important issue which goes unaddressed is that while these middle-aged women steal the sex symbol position from the stereotyped 20-year-olds, it is still women taking off their clothes and using sex to make money (admittedly for a good cause). This delightfully breezy English comedy is straightforward and universal; it has witty charm and is without cynicism. It is a sweet, good-humored, slightly risqué comedy that lampoons contemporary sexual prudishness. (Reviewed Jan 2004)

STARRING: Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Annette Crosby, Linda Bassett, Geraldine James, Ciaran Hinds, John Alderton, Philip Glenister, John-Paul MacLeod, George Costigan, Jay Leno.

ALTERNATES: Comparison to “The Full Monty” is unavoidable.