Calendar Girls (DVD)

Calendar Girls is one of those feel-good, gentle comedy movies which one can actually enjoy quite unashamedly as it doesn`t err to heavily on the side of simplification. Moreover, it is based on a true story (which received a lot of publicity in its time) which nicely deflects any complaints of providing a rose-tinted view of reality.

The starting premise, albeit amusing in a one-off way, is not that terribly promising: a dissident ...
...decide to revolutionise the annual calendar by posing for it naked. No, excuse me, not naked: nude. What resulted, however, is an account that is well-scripted and well-played, funny, heart-warming, entertaining and even providing some mild food for thought. The story develops very briskly, and despite being largely charcter-driven, the film maintains a surprising amount of suspense. Even a viewer familiar (as it was with me) with the general outcome ... more

Calendar Girls is one of those feel-good, gentle comedy movies which one can actually enjoy quite unashamedly as it doesn`t err to heavily on the side of simplification. Moreover, it is based on a true story (which received a lot of publicity in its time) which nicely deflects any complaints of providing a rose-tinted view of reality.

The starting premise, albeit amusing in a one-off way, is not that terribly promising: a dissident faction of a Women`s Institute in a small Yorkshire village decide to revolutionise the annual calendar by posing for it naked. No, excuse me, not naked: nude. What resulted, however, is an account that is well-scripted and well-played, funny, heart-warming, entertaining and even providing some mild food for thought. The story develops very briskly, and despite being largely charcter-driven, the film maintains a surprising amount of suspense. Even a viewer familiar (as it was with me) with the general outcome would often be, perhaps not exactly on the edge of the seat, but anxious and unsure about the turn of events at any of the crisis points of the plot.

Of course, before the calendar materialises, several milestones have to be reached. First, the ladies need to be persuaded to take part. Overall, it doesn`t take very long, after all there will be `no front bottoms` (jn fact even the nipples will be carefully hidden). Secondly, an imprimatur of the WI should be obtained. The photographer has to be found and finally, the calendar has to be presented to the world: will it be a success or an embarrassing failure? Nude or naked?

All these turning points are presented with a great comedy feel and warmth, always in the local context, with little touches that add to the feeling of realistic if artistic representation.

The film was a good showcase for a constellation of great British actresses of slightly more advanced years and they generally used it to their advantage.

Helen Mirren plays Chris, a decidedly unorthodox member of WI, who participates only because her mother wanted her to. She is unruly, irreverent and funny. She submits M&S sponge cake for the competition (and, perhaps predictably but still very funnily, she wins). Her character occasionally borders on feisty, and I am allergic to feisty, but, perhaps due to a slightly more advanced years, it didn`t grate much during the film and Mirren carries the part well. Chris is the main driving force behind the calendar venture and it is her who ultimately falls into the trap created by its development. But then, for Chris the calendar is not only the means to gather money for charity, it`s also her pet project, and a way to successfully complete something in her life - for once. She decidedly feels a bit stifled by the village life and the calendar is a respectable means of not only physical, but psychological getting out - at least for a while.

Julie Walters is Annie, a dignified widow; trying to deal with her grief and responsible for carrying the moral aspect of the enterprise. It is her who has the faith and the guts to react when the line between acceptable and the sordid is crossed as the spin-offs to the calendar develop, it is her who slows down and calms the whirlwind that is Chris. Walters` performance is more understated than Mirren`s, but maybe gains from it as she never `overdoes it` and it is her role that is perhaps the more memorable one.

The film is photographed rather well, with the natural beauty of Yorkshire, perpetually basking in the early autumn sun serving as a kind of leitmotif. The light is used rather cleverly, diffused and dusty in the hall where the ladies meet; warmly enveloping in the scenes of Tai-Chi practised reluctantly by Chris`s faction on the hill high above the village.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by `Calendar Girls` - what I saw was substantially less trite, less stereotypical and more entertaining than I expected. Why is it so? Well, the story itself was remarkable, the way it was told was sensitive and entertaining, and the message went beyond the story, leaving at least this reviewer cushioned in a warm fuzzy feeling for the next several hours.

The ladies in question were not exactly young and although in `real life` we live in an age where real women maintain their vitality and fitness to older age than perhaps ever before, media messages are dominated by images of youth, we are all supposed to yearn for eternal teenagedom, and even anti-wrinke creams are advertised by women hardly into their forties. The story of Calendar Girls reminds us of this and allows to celebrate these real women without neither vouyeristic spite nor mawkish pity. In fact, I have a strong suspicion that the actresses involved in filming the movie had overall *more* hang-ups about exposing their nudity than the actual WI ladies on which they were modelled.

The script avoided some very tempting traps: the families of the ladies are generally very supportive despite one sub-plot of an over-sensitive teenage boy suffering peer sneers because of his mother`s role in the calendar venture (it`s Chris`s son we are speaking about here) and unable to defend himself or her, perhaps because he secretly agrees with the sneerers. I think this line added to the story overall, and the fact that is was just sketched and not overdeveloped was beneficial to the film. The trap of a `jealous husband subplot` was mercifully avoided and replaced by `Dear, you are nude in the Telegraph` line spoken to the oldest of the participants by her husband during immaculate middle-class breakfast.

The great theme of the film is perhaps friendship, a mature, grown-up kind of friendship between Chris and Annie; which lasts through ups and downs and is worth more than money or fame. Overall, after watching `Calendar Girls` I was of a distinct impression that it was good to be middle aged (not that I had that many doubts before) and rather happy due to the fact that I was getting closer in age to the characters in the film and further away from hapless and desperate 20-somethings portrayed in many other movies.

There is a comment on the nature of modern celebrity and the paparazzi tactics here, satire on commercial exploitation of anything that caught public interest. And of course I left the most obvious themes to the last: `Calendar Girls` doesn`t miss its chance to satirise (sometimes quite sharply) the venerable institution the WI is - and to use it as a focal lens for also poking gentler fun at the middle class village life.

However, even those who have never heard of Women Institute will get a fairly clear (although not necessarily very favourable) impression of what it is about from the movie. The scenes depicting meetings of the WI are amongst the funniest in the movie, with hilariously obscure and mind-bogglingly boring lectures from visiting speakers (the one on broccoli borders on a classic), with the intense inter-village competition during cake-and-jam shows and with the scathing and perhaps bit unfair portrayal of the conference and the Chairwoman of the whole organisation.

****Verdict*****

I really liked it. I laughed a few times, chuckled a lot, had a tear or two in my eye and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It`s few weeks since I watched the film and I still like it, in fact I would probably happily watch it again if it was on offer at friend`s` or family`s house when I stay.

I recommend it heartily for almost everybody barring those of you who demand non-stop action from their movie entertainment. It is, obviously, a film for a more female than male audience, but it is by no means exclusively for ladies. It is not soppy or sentimental more than couple of times (and then not much - not more than real life sometimes is, in my opinion), really, and the underlying theme of friendship is presented in a warm, but thoroughly enjoyable manner.

Despite the theme, there is very little actual nudity (hardly a glimpse of a nipple, in fact) and no sex scenes. Those worried about aesthetic aspects of potential viewing of acres of ageing skin needn`t worry: there isn`t much shown, it all belongs to rather well-kept actresses anyway and is shown in merciful light, flattering sepia colours and with a help of many a skilfully selected prop, with an overall effect quite charming.

The film was rated 12 (due to mild nudity and some `language` - I find this term hilarious personally, what film apart form the likes of Koyaanisqatsii doesn`t contain language? - but here you go), which seems bit high to me, but on the other hand the younger people will probably not be very interested anyway. In fact I would say that the theme could be slightly embarrassing for some teenagers, especially boys, who might tend to identify with Chris`s suffering son. Some young people might also find the idea of women in their 40`s, 50`s and 60`s creating a nude calendar (even completely non-sexual one) slightly repulsive - I cannot really empathise with this attitude as I never related to the people who were offended by the idea of their parents having sex, in fact I always thought it rather hopeful.

****DVD particulars and the buying part*****

The extras included on the disk were, this time, quite interesting. There was quite a lot of them, and the ones I actually watched and liked included a feature on the `real` calendar girls - despite widespread reporting in the press at the time, it was quite interesting to see the speak about the experience and be remarkably forthcoming about it. What I found interesting was also the fact that there were some significant differences between the real story and the film version, and I don`t mean just the personality/character stuff that was obviously necessary for fleshing out the story. For example, the photographer was actually a husband of one of the women; but the hunting for and managing the photographer is an entertaining feature of the film itself, so this change added quite a lot to the film`s dynamics.

There is also a feature on how the actresses dealt with baring (not all perhaps but quite a lot) and it was quite clear than despite overall probably better fitness and lower age average, they seemed more conscious and worried about it than the actual Yorkshire ladies. But then, actresses are under more of a pressure to look good than the average wife, so it shouldn`t be so surprising, really. The director Nigel Cole (`Saving Grace`)came accross as sensitive and thoughtful and it shows in the final result.

There was also a selection of deleted scenes which I didn`t watch as my 2.5 hours child-free time in the evening does not allow for extensive perusal of video material (the film itself runs to over 100 minutes).

I rented it from Blockbusters on three for a fiver deal, but it`s available to buy on Amazon for 9.97 GBP.

 

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