日历女孩 Calendar Girls review by James Berardinelli

Like The Full Monty, Calendar Girls features a group of middle-aged individuals stripping off their clothing. Unlike Peter Cattaneo's delightful 1997 flick, this one has trouble finding the right blend of comedy and drama, and the resultant product occasionally has a forced, artificial feel. The film's last third is especially problematic, as the movie introduces some potentially weighty, intriguing issues, then allows them to drop when they require too much time and/or effort to resolve.

Calendar Girls is based (rather loosely) on a real-life event that occurred in 1999 when a group of 11 middle-aged women living in Yorkshire posed in the buff for an unofficial calendar released under the auspices of the Rylstone & District Women's Institute. The calendar, which had an initial print run of 500 copies, became an unexpected success both in England and the United States (the "calendar girls" were featured on Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show"), raising more than half-a-million pounds for a local hospital.

As the film opens, best friends Chris Harper (Helen Mirren) and Annie Clarke (Julie Walters) are enduring the weekly snooze-fests that represent the meetings of the Women's Institute. Presided over by the humorless Marie (Geraldine James), they feature colorless speakers who offer information about broccoli or show slides of an around-the-world vacation. Annie's world is turned upside down when her husband, John (John Alderton), is diagnosed with leukemia. Various treatments, including chemotherapy, keep him alive for a while, but he eventually succumbs. Annie becomes devoted to honoring his memory in the best way she can - by raising money to support leukemia research and to help the hospital where he was treated.

Chris comes up with an unusual fundraising method. Members of the WI can pose nearly naked for a series of "art" shots for a calendar. A few others - Celia (Celia Imrie), Jessie (Annette Crosby), and Cora (Linda Bassett) - agree to participate almost immediately, but the other half-dozen require more persuasion. And, although Marie is initially very unhappy about the proposition of a group of middle-aged women baring it all in a calendar that bears the "WI" name, she eventually relents. What begins with modest expectations turns into an international success.

The film's actual nudity, like what's in the calendar, is hardly scandalous, as is evidenced by the MPAA's granting of a PG-13 rating. There are fleeting glimpses of breasts, nipples, and buttocks, but nothing graphic. After all, the movie isn't about naked bodies, it's about female empowerment, breaking boundaries, and self-expression. And, frankly, not many viewers are going to find anything erotic about a group of fifty-plus women posing in peekaboo shots (although, to be fair, at age 58, Dame Helen Mirren has a body that many women half her age would envy). So it's reasonable to call this kind of nudity "fun" and "lighthearted."

Would that those words could be used to describe the movie as a whole. The first hour comes closest, but even that has some problems. There are really only three legitimate characters in all of Calendar Girls: Chris, Annie, and John. The rest of the "girls," as well as Chris' husband (played by Ciaran Hinds), are stock types, with little to do and minimal personalities. The comedy is of the hit-and-miss variety - there are some laughs, but not nearly as many as I was expecting. In terms of dramatic depth, comedic breadth, and character development, Calendar Girls significantly trails The Full Monty in the battle of British nudity.

The place where Calendar Girls stumbles the most obviously is during its clumsily constructed third act. That's when director Nigel Cole and screenwriters Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi attempt to show the consequences of fame for the girls and their families. Chris' problems are highlighted - her husband is unhappy and her son turns to drug use. And Annie begins to worry that she's no longer doing this for John, but for herself. Alas, all of these issues are resolved in two perfunctory, profoundly unsatisfactory scenes. It's a feel-good movie that ends on a sour note.

No doubt, Calendar Girls will appeal to its target demographic - women of approximately the same age as the protagonists. It's a sad testament to the way motion pictures are made and marketed that there are so few roles for mature actresses (most of whom can act circles around younger performers). As a result, it takes a gimmick like the one underlying this film to gather together such an impressive cast. Unfortunately, the material doesn't justify the talent. These women deserve more than Calendar Girls ultimately gives them.

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