Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Ann-Margret, Loretta Devine, Jane Curtin, Elizabeth Mitchell, James Caan, and Christopher Lloyd
Distributor: Kismet Unit Trust
Runtime: 102 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2022
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This American comedy film tells the story of an independent widow who decides to move into a retirement home while her own house is being repaired. Friendships and rivalries are established in the retirement home with predictable results.
An independent, widowed woman, Helen Wilson (Burstyn), is pressured by her controlling daughter, Laura (Mitchell), to move into a retirement community in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, US. Her cooking stove has set fire to her home and partially destroyed it, while she has locked herself outside her house, which she regularly does. Helen reluctantly agrees to move temporarily into Pine Grove, but her new home houses a bullying group, known as the ‘Queen Bees, led by the dominating Janet Poindexter (Curtin). Among the group, Ann Margret raunchily takes the role of an oft-married Queen Bee, Margot Clark, who becomes amorously attached to inmate, Arthur (Lloyd).
Members of the Queen Bees are collectively mean spirited, but one member of Janet’s group, Sally (Devine), opens the way for Helen to interact positively with the others, and Helen and Sally become friends. Helen plays bridge well, and her card skills are useful to the Queen Bees who enjoy playing the game of Bridge with cut-throat relish. Helen and Janet stay opposed to each other, until Helen earns Janet’s friendship by arranging a surprise birthday party for her. In the meantime, a widowed newcomer to the community, Dan Simpson (Caan), forms an attachment to Helen. Dan’s charm eventually wins Helen over, and they find love and happiness together.
The film focuses on an elderly group of Queen Bees who spend their time harassing residents and making life difficult for others. The film has a good share of bedroom, and romance humour, and offers a lot of sentimentality, and it routinely hints, as expected, at sundry medical crises, such as dementia. The scenes that illustrate the best comic potential show seniors behaving nervously, and anxious about what is happening. The film shows once great ageing performers who are now facing different professional challenges. Burstyn is 89 and received an Oscar for her acting in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More in 1974; and Ann-Margret, now 80, has five Golden Globe Awards to her credit, awarded long ago. This is a film that is relatively light fare for actresses who thrilled at the peak of their profession. Judi Dench, now 87, was nominated for an Academy Award for Belfast (2021) just a year ago, and has 67 award wins and 184 acting nominations behind her, until 2022; quality acting for her has proceeded, despite her suffering serious macular degeneration.
This film is a safe movie in character, scripting, and plotline development. There are challenging and lofty messages in it, but they slip by a little obviously. The film warmly addresses the challenges of ageing, and the inescapable loss of independence. However, life’s serious challenges in the film are captured more in messages that are intended to amuse, and have sentimental appeal. The cast as a whole is impressive, given past achievements, but the film uses their talents to tug visibly at the heartstrings, and fan nostalgic memory.
The film is best described as a gentle romantic comedy, and it highlights the abilities of its veteran performers. The group of vintage talent finds meaning in the material, but plot-predictability works at times to undermine the intended thrust.
The film works best when it promotes feelings of well-being for a community that has lived gratefully from a long past. The cast is full of familiar faces, but the film cloaks a concealed purpose: to deliver enjoyable, entertaining fare and concern for the elderly in today’s anxious times like the present, where sentimental appeal works comfortably well.
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