Calendar Girls DVD > Reviews > Bigger Buns Please!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Wonderfuly moving true story
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

What a lovely film. I am going to go into detail of the plot, so sorry it's going to spoil the film for anyone.
Calendar Girls is based on a true story of a group of women from a WI group in a small town called Skipton. They had record sales of a calendar with a difference. "It's not naked, it's nude"!

The film stars Helen Mirren as Chris - the brains behind the operation and Julie Walters as Annie with a few other famous faces scattered among the cast too such as Penelope Wilton as Ruth, Linda Bassett who was also in the Martins and Annette crosbie as Jessi. They all play their parts with great enthusiast, it's a great performance from all.

The story as I said before is a true one. Annie and Chris are very good friends who attend the local WI meetings together. They find the meeting's very boring with different speakers attending each week to give talks on subjects such as Rugs and Broccoli!!?!? Annie and Chris try to talk their partners into giving a more interesting talk to the group on their jobs to which Annie's husband agrees. His talk would be about flowers as they are part of his job.

One day after the WI meeting Annie goes home to be faced with her husband John's suitcase, she thinks he's leaving her, but he actually has leukemia and is going to hospital and this is the first that poor Annie knows of her Husbands illness.

Time passes and John becomes more and more weak and ill and Annie is told that her Husband immune system is no longer working and it's just a matter of time. There is a very touching scene in their car just before John dies. He and Annie are parked on top of a hill looking at the beautiful countyside scenery, when John reads his talk to Annie. It start's very moving about different stages of a flower, with the final stage being the most glorious!

After John's death Annie and her friend Chris want to do something to raise money for a sofa for the relatives room at the hospital that John died in. After much though on the subject Chris comes up with an idea after seeing a calendar in a garage with semi naked young girls on it. She takes the idea to Annie and the both of them try to enrol other members from the Womens Institute. Luckily for them, quite a few of the other women are up for getting their kit off. They find themselves a photographer and start on the long process of trying to get the calendar off the ground.

When the photographs come through, they are sent off immediately to the printers. The women have 500 calendars printed off under the impression that noone will ever look twice at them. They hoped to beat the sales of the last Womens Institute calendar with bought in a grand total of £75.60. Little do they know that this calendar will become a phenomenon! And not just in the uk, in america too!

The film sounds very morbid but is quite funny in most parts. Especialy during the ste up of the first photograph. The famous line with the buns, you should know it by now! There is a great aspect of comedy from the scrip writers who clearly didn't want the watcher to dwell on thefact that all of their sucess came from the death of Annie's Husband. Although you are reminded every now and then, especially when Annie and Chris go infront of the Womens Institute Council and Chairwoman to ask permission to use the WI name on the calendar. Which after a touching speech from Chris is given unwillingly.

There are quite a few other stories going on during the film. Ruth one of the members of the Womens Institute has a very unloving relationship with her Husband and the film takes you through a startling revelation in her marriage. As well as Chris having problems with her teenage son (who always seems to walk in on her whilst she is looking at porn mag's or taking her bra off). What a horrible thing for a son to see!

The film overall is wonderully moving and made me cry more than once. It's not something that everyone will like but my Husband seemed to enjoy it, which I think was due to the comedy element of the film.

You can buy Calendar girls from all good highstreet shops who sell DVD's and video's. With DVD's costing from £14.99 and video's casting from £9.99 depending on where you buy from.

The dvd has a few extras such as deleted scenes and a really cool music video called child stars. I'm not sure what the relevnce to the film is but it's odd seeing people like Corey Haim and Corey Feldman who look not quite the heart thob 's they were. Joanie Cunningham Also sings with them. It's worth buying the DVD just for that.

Anyway, I hope you like my review.
Kim