Movie Club: Calendar Girls, Directed by Nigel Cole

We all love Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, and Calendar Girls is a movie that offers their wonderful on screen chemistry and so much more! The entire cast is absolutely fabulous! It is funny, authentic, touching, sad, inspiring and just plain entertaining – everything a great movie should be!

Released in 2003, “Calendar Girls” is a timeless story of creative resilience and friendship. Women in the Sixty and Me community gave it such a positive recommendation that I wanted to feature it as this week’s Movie Choice.

“Calendar Girls” is based on a true story and describes the adventures of a group of British housewives from North Yorkshire who decide to pose for a nude calendar to raise money for the local hospital after one of the women loses her husband to leukemia. Their unique idea was to show each woman posing in the context of a task that their Women’s Institute teaches.

The pictures show them nude while making bread rolls, knitting, planting flowers, and playing the piano. Their original plan was to sell a few hundred copies but it became a worldwide success.

The film shows each women coming to grips with their aging bodies and fighting their own stereotypes. Their transformations are hilarious! The movie examines their individual fear and embarrassment. Once they relax enough to support each other, there is no stopping them.

Their success also shows the perils of fame and the tension it can create between friends. The movie balances the stories of several unique women who must learn to deal with fame and come to terms with their self-identity. Women in the Sixty and Me community will almost certainly identify with one or more of the characters.

This movie will leave you smiling, laughing and crying at the challenges facing these fifty-something women. Hopefully it will inspire you to step a little outside your comfort zone to stand up for something that matters to you.

If you don’t already have “Calendar Girls” you can buy a DVD or watch it on Amazon Instant Video.

To kick things off, here are a few questions for discussion. Please add your thoughts in the comments:

Which one of the women in the movie did you most identify with and why?

Which month of the calendar would you have wanted to be?

What other calendar ideas do you think would have worked for this group?

Would you pose nude or semi-nude for a good cause?

Do you think that being famous creates more trouble than it is worth sometimes?

How to do feel the men in this movie were depicted?

I hope you enjoy being a part of our movie club for women over 60! Please leave your comments below.