Book Club: The Next Chapter (Blu-ray Review)
The sequel to a movie we never knew we needed came out of nowhere earlier this year – Book Club: The Next Chapter! I wrote that sentence initially because it’s absolute truth, however I also write it because, I can’t lie, I enjoyed this film. In some ways, it’s actually better than it’s predecessor. Do these movie besties, played by iconic actresses, fill the bill for a woman-centered light comedy? Find out in-depth below! Don’t forget to click the paid link after reading if you feel tempted to see what book the girls dive into this time…
Film 
The highly anticipated sequel follows our four best friends as they take their book club to Italy for the fun girls trip they never had. When things go off the rails and secrets are revealed, their relaxing vacation turns into a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country adventure.
We last saw the four best friends: Diane, Vivian, Sharon and Carol (Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen respectively) as they worked through the erotic blockbuster novel Fifty Shades of Grey. The book affected them all differently and we watched as they all stepped out of their comfort zones to grow and change as they continue to get older in a more progressive time.
Now in 2023, the group has been navigating life pre and post pandemic. We reconnect with the girls as they meet up on Zoom during lockdown. We see things evolve on their rotating video calls as they read, discuss their lives, and support one another at a distance. Then, things are easing back and there’s something of a book club reunion among the group. They’re all going to start reading The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. This is a book that I’ve read personally, and I do know it to be effective to many people in many different ways. For this group of wonderful women, the book comes to them as they are coming into new eras.
All 4 women are in their 70’s and in varying relationships. Carol is happily married and dealing with a husband (Craig T. Nelson) recovering from a minor heart attack. Vivian has finally broken her rule of not marrying and said yes to a proposal from Arthur (Don Johnson), an old flame she reunited with in the first movie. Diane has moved on from her “old age inevitability” of living with her daughter and finding new youthful life with Mitchell (Andy Garcia) who also whisked her off her feet in the first movie. Sharon, seemingly eternally single, is retiring from her career as a judge, and settling into a role as a homebody with a cat… until the cat dies.
While planning her wedding, Vivian, taking advice from the group reading The Alchemist, and a bit of nudging from Carol, decides it may be amazing to go on a girl’s trip as a bachelorette party to Italy. The girls all have their excuses not to go, but then the “why nots” take over and soon the ladies are jet-setting off to Rome. The trip also takes them to Venice and Tuscany, with ups and down along the way.
I must be completely honest. I saw a very large poster for this film before going in to see Avatar: The Way of Water and I frankly looked at it, laughed and said, “but why?” out loud. I kind of just brushed it off, and noticed it came to theaters with little to no fanfare. I noticed when I received the opportunity to review the new Book Club film that the film studio had changed as well. That made me curious, but also just the littlest bit scared. Usually if a film is moving on to sequels and a studio has passed on releasing it, that doesn’t always bode well – I can say that from seeing movies like Pacific Rim: Uprising or even something like the Terminator series that has been released by Orion, Tri-Star (and then by Lionsgate via licensing), Warner, and Paramount… franchises bouncing everywhere! I digress, but for me that can spell “red flag…”
With all honesty, I found Book Club: The Next Chapter to be entirely delightful. The film’s plotting is predictable and paper thin. The movie goes along the line of many typical comedies in the same vein. The charm of this though, is that you can take 102 minutes to spend with 4 wonderful, naturally funny actresses having a good time with one another. I find it hard to think that anyone who worked on this film had a hard or bad time. That’s the charm of this one – It’s so sweet and charming that it doesn’t make a difference if you’ve seen some of these things before. It doesn’t matter that you may have guessed what was coming before it’s eventually revealed. This is a film that viewers go into knowing what to expect.
I obviously did not expect much from Book Club: The Next Chapter. Besides genuinely loving the core-four cast members, I loved their banter. Bergen is the clear winner of the group, with hilarious jokes and comebacks. Diane Keaton – What can we say, really? She makes even terrible movies (and shes been in a few…) tolerable. Jane Fonda does the bride-to-be role well, and she finds a good balance between comical and encouraging. Mary Steenbergen would get the sweetness award here. She plays a caring wife and a very loving friend with ease. The men, of which there are many here, don’t get as much screen or story time, but the guys who play the men in the women’s lives are all perfect for their respective lady.
Video
Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: HD (1080p)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Layers: BD-50
Clarity/Detail: Book Club: The Next Chapter arrives home with a true to source HD Blu-ray. The film looks to have been filmed in 4K as most things are these days. Most of the runtime is spent in gorgeous locales in the day and nighttime. There is great sharpness and clarity throughout with no issues hindering the transfer. There are moments of softness, but this feels like an artistic choice. I wouldn’t call the film’s look filmic, but it looks like well-made episodic TV.
Black Levels: Blacks can look grey at times, with brightness dialed up a bit, especially in nighttime scenes. There are a few moments in once scene under the stars where the sky is so grey it almost looked fake.
Color Reproduction: Colors are vibrant and beautiful. The use of color is everywhere and the beauty of that is that colors pop, making it hard to look away for the whole of the film.
Flesh Tones: Flesh tones look natural unless the leading ladies are heavily made up, or you’re watching that previously mentioned outdoor, under the stars scene.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean.
Audio
Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish DTS 5.1, French DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Dynamics: Book Club: The Next Chapter comes with a source perfect DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. Dynamically the film isn’t rife with audio moments needing much immersion. Music is the most volatile part of the mix, with surrounds filling in the outdoor scenes with ambience.
Height: N/A
Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer is used for music cues, some occasional travelling sounds and not much else.
Surround Sound Presentation: All ambience goes to the surrounds, but that ambience is quiet and mellow rather than enveloping.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is always intelligible and easy to hear.
Extras
Supplements for Book Club: The Next Chapter are slim, as expected. Besides the DVD, Digital Code and slipcover, you get:
Book Club: Back In Session (HD, 6:04) – A small EPK style piece about coming back to the Book Club universe and the differences from the first film.
Still Stylish (HD, 5:21) – The fashion of the film is the subject of this one! Fancy that!
The Women In Italy (HD, 5:29) – The idea of making the film in Italy, the look of the country and how much fun It all was…
Summary
All told, this is what I’d call a cute, mindless fun film. This is worth a rental for the curious, and a pick-up for fans of the first. The formula is refined here, and the pacing is quick and easy. The film itself is well made, and I like the direction the team (returning from the first film…) took to try and freshen up the concept. This worked well and makes for an actual better-than-the-first feeling for this sequel.
