BOOK CLUB THE NEXT CHAPTER (2023) Celebrates Friendship

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Book Club The Next Chapter is the perfect movie to see with your mothers and girlfriends.

Premise of Book Club The Next Chapter

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.

The Best 4 Reasons to Watch Book Club The Next Chapter

1 – Fans of Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen, will be so thrilled to have the fab 4 back after their hilarious OG Book Club in 2018.

Reading the Fifty Shades of Grey series certainly did these ladies no wrong. Jane Fonda‘s character Vivian rekindled her romance with college beau Don Johnson (real life father of Dakota Johnson, who played Anastasia Steele in the movies), Diane Keaton’s character Diane found the strength to stand up for herself and chose happiness with sexy pilot Mitchell (Andy Garcia, who played her nephew in The Godfather Trilogy), Candice Bergen’s Sharon stepped out of her shell and embraced her sexuality and independence, and Mary Steenburgen’s Carol was forced to have a heart to heart with her husband (Craig T. Nelson) after beating around the bushes.

Fast four five years and a pandemic later and you have the four women in their seventies looking terrific and still as witty and clever with the delivery of the one liners writers Bill Holderman and Erin Simms throw at them. They are just as funny and fresh as before and any true fan of these women will be cracking up for 108 minutes.

2 – Fans of Travel and Italy will love the romantic tour through Italy.

I remember traveling by train throughout Italy and being almost robbed on the train from Venice (Venezia) to Rome (Roma). [True story, I insist.] And to see Italy beautifully captured as a fifth leading lady was a delight. To travel through Venice, Rome, and Tuscany, as the women visit the famous sites such as The Spanish Steps, feast on Italian food, and drink bottles of Italian wines, makes one almost think that the official tourism site Italia.It is a producer.

Trust me, you’ll be wanting to pack your own bags very soon to go on a girls trip to Italy.

3 – This is a Story about Sisterhood and Friendship.

Yes, this is billed as a bachelorette party in Italy but more than that this is an ode to friendship and sisterhood. These four amazing actresses and comedians play best friends who’ve spent the better part of fifty years together since college.

As Sharon says half-way through the movie,

We’re on this trip, not because of fate, but because we’re best friends for fifty years. We show up for each other. Fate didn’t bring us on this trip, our love for each other did.”

I can only hope that when I am 70, I am still surrounded by the amazing women I call my nearest and dearest now.

4 – Bette Midler’s Version of Mambo Italiano

Bette Midler who co-starred with Diane Keaton in The First Wives’ Club lends her pipes to the credits with a wonderful rendition of Mambo Italiano that will have you swaying in your seats.

The Joyous Living