The slew of quirky British comedies that followed the success of The Full Monty, each focusing on the spunky inhabitants of some small town who band together and win the lottery, enter a band competition, plant a garden, take your pick, has tapered off lately, so Calendar Girls is not as fatigue-inducing as it might have been a few years ago. The quirky British comedy focuses on the spunky women of a small town who band together and put out a nude calendar, celebrating their middle-aged bodies and raising money for a local hospital.
The local chapter of the Women's Institute puts out a calendar with pictures of churches and flower arrangements every year, but rebel members Chris (Helen Mirren) and Annie (Julie Walters) want to help out the cancer ward where Annie's husband spent his last days, so they hit on a more lucrative proposition: The local housewives will pose nude in the calendar's pages, obscured by buns and flowers and other household items. The buildup to the creation of the calendar, which takes up the first half of the film, is good, amusing fun, as Chris rallies the shy women to celebrate their bodies, shock their husbands out of complacency, and do it all for a good cause.
Mirren embodies the sassy older woman who finally finds something to get excited about in her sleepy small town, and her charm creates the film's best comedic moments. The opposite of the crass Something's Gotta Give, Calendar Girls genuinely celebrates the attractiveness of older women without being condescending. The big reveal of the calendar is a wonderful moment.
Unfortunately, that's only half the movie, and the rest drags on limply, as the girls achieve international stardom thanks to their calendar, head to the U.S. to appear on The Tonight Show, and have to learn to appreciate their small-town lives and loving families. Through the muddy second half, the pairing of Mirren and Walters sees the movie through, even when the script doesn't seem to know what it's doing. Either because or in spite of being based on a true story, the film meanders weakly before tying up on what seems like a slightly false note.
Even so, there's enough charm to make this one of the better Full Monty knockoffs, and Mirren's performance has enough sparkle (and nudity) for Calendar Girls to be a fun, if light, moviegoing experience.