Scheduling a movie鈥檚 release date is an imperfect science and occasionally an art. Just look at the masterpiece that was
While most are open to experimentation in figuring out just what audiences want and when in the wild west of modern theatrical moviegoing, there鈥檚 also an unwritten rule that it鈥檚 best to leave big superhero movie weekends clear of competition. But whoever thought to open the third-act female friendship comedy 鈥淭he Fabulous Four鈥� alongside 鈥� 鈥� deserves a raise. Because if any audience is being underserved on the opening weekend of an oxygen-sucking, violent and self-referential superhero mashup, it鈥檚 women over 60.
So, what better way to escape the merc with a mouth than a trip to Key West with Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally?
In the vein of 鈥�80 for Brady鈥� and 鈥淏ook Club,鈥� 鈥淭he Fabulous Four鈥� may not be a great movie, but it鈥檚 also better than it looks. Although it strains for raucousness with edibles and a parasailing expedition gone wrong, there is something admirably sane about it too even if you don鈥檛 believe a single moment. It begins, as many of these kinds of films do, with a somewhat tortured explanation of why these women became friends in their youth. Though it nods at a slight age difference between college peers Lou (Sarandon) and Marilyn (Midler) and the two gals they met in New York, Alice (Mullally) and Kitty (Ralph), it鈥檚 better to not do the math.
Besides, the more interesting question is not why four single girls in the same building became friends, but rather how they maintained that closeness over the decades. This big life mystery goes largely unexplored, instead focusing on the 40-year estrangement between Lou (now a heart surgeon) and Marilyn. It's a drama that for utterly incomprehensible reasons Alice (a rock star, seriously) and Kitty (a cannabis entrepreneur grandma) are still entangled in.
Marilyn, recently widowed, is newly engaged and desperately wants Lou to be at her wedding. Alice and Kitty lure Lou to Key West under false pretenses, telling her that she鈥檚 won a polydactyl (six-toed) cat and can visit the Hemingway House. They don鈥檛 have anything more elaborate in store in this lie. Their plan, it seems, is just to roll up to Marilyn鈥檚 house and surprise their unwitting hostage. This seems misguided at best but becomes retroactively cruel when the cause of the fallout is finally revealed. Why meddle now?
The movie was directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the Australian filmmaker behind great and varied female-focused films like 鈥淗ow to Make an American Quilt,鈥� 鈥淭he Dressmaker鈥� and 鈥淢uriel鈥檚 Wedding,鈥� and written by Jenna Milly and Ann Marie Allison. And it never quite harmonizes. These characters, fabulous as they may be individually or on paper, aren鈥檛 greater together somehow.
As Marilyn and Lou dance around this ancient feud, you start to feel bad for Alice (mostly there to be a quip machine) and Kitty, who would have much more fun ditching them and going off on their own adventure. Midler plays Marilyn so big and broad that she鈥檚 more parody than person, although there is a grain of intrigue in the 70-something who gets engaged two months after her beloved husband dies and becomes obsessed with creating TikToks. Sarandon鈥檚 Lou is the most thoughtfully developed character, as a rule-abiding woman whose life is in desperate need of a shakeup. She has some cringey moments too (the aforementioned edibles), but also several charming flirtations with the bachelors of Key West (Bruce Greenwood and Timothy V. Murphy).
This is a movie that should have probably leaned far less on wild hijinks with diminishing returns and more into the smaller moments of what it means to be friends for 40 years. But it's not without its charms, either. I鈥檓 not going to argue with them breaking into song out of nowhere. That kind of break from reality, especially with this cast, is always welcome.
鈥淭he Fabulous Four,鈥� a Bleecker Street release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for 鈥渄rug use, some sexual material, language.鈥� Running time: 98 minutes. Two stars out of four.
Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
