![]() ![]() The conflicts of these prosperous, privileged women of a bangin’ age are decidedly low-stakes, even when “The Next Chapter” piles one trivial crisis on top of the last. Carol, her Los Angeles restaurant a covid-era casualty, now pours all her energy into controlling her health-challenged husband, Bruce (Craig T. ![]() Viv, a lifelong singleton, harbors gnawing doubts about matrimony, as does Diane, who is still with Mitch (Andy Garcia), the yummy guy she met five years ago. (This year’s inspo is Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist,” references to which are forced into the dialogue like so much soppressata.) It’s also telling that, to find a believable love interest for Fonda, the filmmakers had to find a man several years her junior: At 85, she still looks smashing, deploying her lithe physique with dancerly grace and precision, and proudly showing it off during a fizz-fueled wedding-dress montage. It’s gruesome going at times, but the action is never less than gripping. It’s something of an inside joke that Arthur is played by Don Johnson - whose daughter Dakota starred in the adaptation of “50 Shades of Grey,” the novel that the “Book Club” ladies were reading last time. The great triumph of The Pull of the Stars is Donoghue’s careful description of the minute-to-minute life of a nurse fighting to save the lives of her patients. ![]()
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