
Middle aged Chris Harper (Dame Helen Mirren) and Annie Clarke (Dame Julie Walters) are best friends. They spend much of their time at their local Knapely, Yorkshire County chapter of the Women's Institute (WI), whose motto is "enlightenment, fun, and friendship". Although they like most of the women at the WI (the friendship part), they, but the perceived flaky Chris in particular, hold the way Marie (Geraldine James), the local President, runs the chapter with derision. They... (Full plot summary below)
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Middle aged Chris Harper (Dame Helen Mirren) and Annie Clarke (Dame Julie Walters) are best friends. They spend much of their time at their local Knapely, Yorkshire County chapter of the Women's Institute (WI), whose motto is "enlightenment, fun, and friendship". Although they like most of the women at the WI (the friendship part), they, but the perceived flaky Chris in particular, hold the way Marie (Geraldine James), the local President, runs the chapter with derision. They find much of what goes on there, especially the monthly presentations, banal and devoid of enlightenment and fun. Equally as banal was last year's fund-raising calendar, featuring local bridges, which raised a meager £75.60, with this year's proposed calendar, local churches, promising to be even more so. After Annie's husband John (John Alderton) dies from leukemia, Chris wants the WI to provide a memorial in his memory: a new sofa for the family room at the hospital. The one Chris wants to buy costs nine hundred ninety-nine pounds sterling, which she proposes to raise by changing the fund-raising calendar to one featuring tasteful photographs of nude Knapely WI members. She got the idea by seeing all around her the notion of the old adage that sex sells. Annie likes the idea as it is analogous to one of horticultural-loving John's last statements about plants being the most glorious in the latter stages of their life, after which they quickly go to seed. To get the project off the ground, they not only have to convince nine other WI members to pose (December to be a group photograph), but they have to find a photographer they trust that will treat this task as an art project. Conversely, they aren't sure if they and the calendar will meet with the same contempt from Marie, the national WI organization and their friends and family that they are so trying to change in the Knapely WI, and in the process not only not raise the necessary money, but, in fact lose money instead. or the project in any form may have its own consequences, especially for Chris.
Leave your thoughts about Calendar Girls.
| Hollywood ReporterRay BennettIt's a real-life story adapted into a grown-up comedy that is warm, winning and sexy. Call it "The Full Auntie." |
| Film Journal InternationalShirley SealyTurns out to be one of those good ideas that do not easily make good movies. |
| One Guy's OpinionFrank SwietekModerately pleasurable, largely because of its large, exuberant ensemble cast and its understated British humor. |
| Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)Linda CookNo, this isn't the female version of "The Full Monty." "Calendar Girls" stands on its own as a memorable movie that contains a week's worth of chuckles. |
| Miami HeraldConnie OgleThe film's appeal is universal, not just female, and, best of all, it's based on a true story. |
| Ebert & RoeperRichard Roeper... good-natured confection, filled with breezy humor and heartfelt relationships ... |
| Creative LoafingMatt BrunsonUnabashedly celebrates the luminescent beauty of the older woman. |
| Orlando WeeklySteve SchneiderPlays like a string of minor conflicts and resolutions instead of one great, overarching crusade. |
| Detroit Free PressTerry LawsonA refreshing lark, made all the more enjoyable by a cast of fine actors. |
| Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)Ken HankeCharming -- if finally somewhat predictable -- little British comedy from director Nigel Cole. Helen Mirren is positively luminous. |