Book Club’Hits Perfect Demographic Paramount Cross-Promotion) the H E R E ’S No Way to Spoil Book Club Reads E

CHICAGOLAWBULLETIN.COM FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2018 ® Volume 164, No. 103 Serving Chicago’s legal community for 163 years ‘Book Club’hits perfect demographic Paramount cross-promotion) the h e r e ’s no way to spoil book club reads E. L. James’ the ending of “Book “Fifty Shades of Grey.”Then each C l u b , ”the chick-of-a- of them experiences a romantic certain-age flick star- awakening. Dashing, doe-eyed ring Jane Fonda, Can- Andy Garcia and smokin’hot Don Tdice Bergen, Diane Keaton and RE B E C CA Johnson step in and rise to the Mary Steenburgen as members of occasion. (No frogs were kissed in L. FORD a book club that’s met monthly for the making of this film.) Not since 40 years. It’s the same as every Hillary won the Democratic Party fairy tale: happily, ever after. Rebecca L. Ford is counsel to Scharf nomination has such an optimistic Representing the opposite end Banks Marmor LLC, and concentrates her message been sent to the women of the horological spectrum from practice on complex litigation, compliance, of AARP. the Disney princesses, the “Book board governance and specialized As in the television sitcoms of C l u b”women want the same thing employment issues. She is the former the 1970s, each woman’s story line that every heroine has wanted executive vice president for litigation and ends with an object lesson. The intellectual property at MGM. She can be since Cinderella first picked up reached at [email protected]. moral is to remain open to op- her broom —to be transported portunities at any age. Every from a life of drudgery into one of woman is a “p r i n c e s s ”when she adventure and love. s o c i e t y ’s shared values. removes the mask she wears to It is probably no coincidence “Book Club”reinforces the disguise her fear. that “Book Club”was released to shared starry-eyed, expectations T h e r e ’s not much to be said of coincide with the royal wedding, of women and girls of every gen- the movie’s writing or direction. on which the curtain fell with the eration who grow up believing The film’s four veteran actresses remarkable Ms. Markle riding that the rainbow-hued arc of their can breathe life into any script. away in a carriage drawn by white personal story will bend toward a The story is about wish fulfill- horses, her charming prince by fairy tale outcome. ment, and it hits its target as her side. Fonda, still a sex-bomb at 80 squarely as any Dickens novel This stuff never gets old. (such durable fabulousness isn’t in that rewards an orphaned hero “Book Club”employs the “S ex the cards for you unless you too with an unexpected inheritance. and the City”and “Golden Girls” were a Barbarella at 30 and, as Today, when the pleasures of device of assigning romantic sto- mean girl Megyn Kelly pointed youth can be extended well into rylines to four archetypically di- out, have a really great plastic retirement, marriage expert Es- verse friends: Fonda plays a suc- surgeon), plays a sybarite with a ther Perel advises us that we are cessful sex-obsessed hotelier; policy against emotional attach- likely to experience three distinct Steenburgen is a housewife whose ment. The carnal knowledge of marriages —whether it is with recently retired husband is adrift; B e r g e n ’s judge has perished in the the same person or not. Keaton is a widow whose daugh- 18 years since her divorce, and the Our guiding myths about ro- ters insult and enfeeble her with m ov i e’s comic relief is provided by mantic partnerships and the role their condescending stereotypes her foray into computer dating. of women in them will have to be about Third Age helplessness; and S t e e n b u r g e n ’s jobless husband has reinvented to accommodate our Bergen is a federal judge (with a performance issues. modern lifestyles in an age of cat named Ginsburg), whose son The ladies approach life like 5- feminism and female accomplish- and ex-husband are about to mar- year-olds at water’s edge. They ment. ry young women who are roughly noisily complain as the waves We need the myths, as beacons the same age. invitingly lick their toes, afraid to of hope. They unite and encourage The movie’s message —that it plunge into the unknown. Al- us —like the national anthem. is possible to find love at any age though they are financially secure These dowager princesses show —is as reassuring as it is pre- and have plenty of agency, some- us that agency, autonomy and dictable. Famous folklorist Joseph thing is missing. partnership all reside in the best Campbell taught us that the pur- All four are romantically chal- of all possible worlds. pose of myths is to reinforce a lenged until (in a shameless And there is hope for us all. Copyright © 2018 Law Bulletin Media. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from Law Bulletin Media..

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