Movie Review - Book Club directed by Bill Holderman

Giving a serious review of this movie is rather difficult. Especially when there were some that really panned it as fluff, as a nod to the older woman, as a shameless vehicle for the book Fifty Shades of Grey - which is all true. Seriously though I and my friends laughed out loud, shed a tear or two and really rather enjoyed it. Four rather mature in age girlfriends had shared a book club for forty years, meeting once a month according to the script. Jane Fonda, as Vivian, played the role of a successful hotelier who had shied away quite dramatically from real love for her entire life - that is until Don Johnson, as Arthur came back into her life. Diane Keaton, as Diane, a widow of just a year with daughters that saw her as frail and helpless, fell reluctantly in love with Mitchell, a wealthy air line pilot played by Andy Garcia. Mary Steenburgen, as Carol, was a renowned chef and still married to the love of her life, Bruce, played by Craig T. Nelson, who had recently retired, losing interest in anything intimate, let alone sexual. Candice Bergen, as Sharon, a federal court judge, had been divorced without any relationship for eighteen years and saw no need for such nonsense. She was dared by these friends to get back in the dating game and signed herself up to a dating service. There she met George, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Derek, played by Wallace Shawn, before cancelling that account as a bad idea. 

The script was full of sexual innuendo and if I had only paid attention to that I would indeed have put my nose up in the air and agreed with Sharon (Candice Bergen) - a bad idea. To discover depth to this story made the movie something more. The four women, Vivian, Diane, Sharon and Carol, shared the worries of women growing older that still do want romance but are afraid that game is and should be over and done with. Women often do feel a shudder of invisibility that can come with the passing of time. At the same time, these girls that had become strong, but vulnerable women, still loved to share details of clothes and boyfriends. The book they chose appeared to be merely a vehicle for the story, because it was not an extensive part of their dialogue.

So, if you don’t like chick flicks - whether adolescent or very mature adolescent - please don’t go. If you like any or all of the cast, and it is a great cast, go to watch them take this story and have fun with it. I know that I certainly had fun with it. (For my tastes, there was a bit too much wine involved, however that did play well with the story. And there is a scene starring Viagra.)

“Ladies, we should not go gentle into the good night.”

~ Vivian (Jane Fonda), Book Club

Director - Bill Holderman

Cast

Jane Fonda - Vivian

Diane Keaton - Diane

Candice Bergen - Sharon

Mary Steenburgen - Carol

Andy Garcia - Mitchell

Don Johnson - Arthur

Craig T. Nelson - Bruce

Richard Dreyfuss - George

Wallace Shawn - Derek

Discovering No-Knead Bread

My first attempt at No-Knead Bread has been pretty darn successful! The crust is a little dark, but doesn’t taste burned. I had my doubts about the recipe and the dough. The recipe was far too simple - flour, water, salt and a 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. The rising time - now that was just weird. Eighteen hours for the first rise! And then punched down, let rise two or three more times! But I was determined - I wanted a bread that was similar to one I buy at the store. When I discovered this recipe online, and then the same recipe in a book I’m reading (136 Recipes that Saved My Life by Ruth Reichl) I had to try it. Strange or not. The dough was sticky and wet. I couldn’t see how it would amount to anything. Did I mention the temperature of the oven? 475 degrees. And the cast iron pot that the dough was to be cooked in was to be heated up as well as the lid. Getting the dough into this dangerously hot dutch oven was a challenge but I did it without burning myself. Baked for 30 minutes, the lid was to come off and the round loaf of bread I saw was nothing short of amazing. It was a beautiful caramel colour and I was tempted to take it out right away. But, I followed the directions and left it in without the lid for 15 more minutes. I really think it could have come out about five minutes earlier because it seems a bit too dark. It is delicious, though. Crusty, chewy and sweet although no sugar was added. Ruth Reichl says that the additional rising times make a difference to the flavour of the bread. 

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; 

and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”

~ James Beard

136 Recipes that Saved My Life - My Kitchen Year

By Ruth Reichl

Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread Recipe at leitesculinara.com

In the Bright Sunshine

Far from the prairie fields 

where my dad spent hours on the tractor plowing, planting and harvesting

to discover that out here on the west coast

where flowers, trees and gardens flourish

it was hard to imagine

that this so very different landscape would remind me in so many ways of him ~

  Today's bright sunshine and cloudless skies

  Tall waving grasses allowed to grow and seed

  Roses in yards and gardens, wild or tended

  The deer that wander through our yards

  The work-smudged face of a young man at the bus stop

  Ice cream and little kids 

  Even rocks piled and sheltering ‘Hens and Chicks’ 

I guess that memory is not tied to a specific place

except tucked in the button down, front pocket of my heart

“Dad, wherever you are, you are gone but you will never be forgotten.”

~ Conrad Hall