REVIEW: ‘Book Club 2’ boasts a few laughs, but no plot

Strolling around ruins, enjoying meals at great restaurants and taking in the sights, “Book Club: The Next Chapter” begs to be captured properly. Instead, it doesn’t even look as good as something you might shoot with your iPhone. Scenes are grainy, underlit and hardly as enticing as a travelogue would be.

Much of “Book Club 2,” for that matter, is underdone. The trip comes after months of pandemic quarantining. The friends decide to enjoy a little vacation, then turn it into a bachelorette party when Fonda’s character announces she’s engaged. That spirals into a dress-shopping excursion, close encounters with old flames and, oddly, a stint in jail. Never mind the four lose their luggage at the start of the trip. It’s fairly forgotten once they realize they can buy new clothes when they’re abroad. The cost of something like must be amazing (particularly since they don’t have Sally Field around to keep book) and hardly a thought when most lines sound ad-libbed.

Bergen, as a retired judge, gets the best gags, primarily since she’s not committed like the others. She complains about friends asking her to preside at their weddings and (spoiler alert!) guess what she’s pressed to do here?

When the four are shown in Rome and Venice, “Book Club 2” is at least engaging. A documentary about the four actresses – talking cinema over dinner and drinks – would have been far superior. But writer/director Bill Holderman is much more interested in pleasing the over-60 crowd that may have glanced at “Fifty Shades of Grey.” (During opening week, the four appear in pre-film teaser wishing mothers a “Happy Mother’s Day,” which should give you a clue about the target audience.) He uses the thin “book club” premise to bring the disparate housewives together, then barely encourages them to look at a book. That fashion show lets Fonda try on a handful of wedding gowns before Keaton dons one that looks suspiciously like something she has worn on television. To add to the effect, she plays a woman named Diane (no kidding) who gets some physical shtick with the ashes of her late husband.

Steenburgen is best remembered for playing the accordion and, true to form, Fonda is viewed as the sexpot who has trouble trying to commit.

The four look comfortable together and must have had loads of fun when the camera wasn’t rolling. When it is, there’s an attempt to fit into “Golden Girls” categories. Since the first film ended rather happily, this is just more of the same – without fear of failure. Don Johnson, Andy Garcia (always, Andy Garcia) and Craig T. Nelson are here for the obligatory wedding. But it’s Giancarlo Giannini who bears watching. He’s an Italian cop who shows interest in Bergen when the four are tossed in the slammer.

She handles the inferences well before borrowing his jacket to give her the right to preside (don’t ask).

Because the four work well together (not unlike Fonda’s “80 for Brady” crew), expect another chapter in the book. This one is skippable, but only because there’s no real tension. Trying to figure out how to survive in Italy with no luggage, no money and no way to call their friends back home might have been a trip worth taking.

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