Calendar Girls

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

While each Yorkshire playmate-of-the-month warmly assesses her own undewy flesh, the movie gives off a happy vibe of appreciation -- for the dignity of the real Rylstone lot, the actresses who play them so lovingly, and the simple, flower-bed borders of the story.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The film's appeal is universal, not just female, and, best of all, it's based on a true story.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

It creates a strong sense of a living, breathing community, and you root for its affectionately drawn characters as they experience the giddiness of triumph without forgetting the project's bittersweet inspiration.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The story hooks us because stars Helen Mirren and Julie Walters look as fetching in woolens and Wellingtons as they do in the altogether. But it reels us in because it is about people who for so long have paid lip service to making a difference that they are profoundly altered when they actually do.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Charming movie,

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's the kind of sweet, good-humored comedy that used to star Margaret Rutherford, although Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, its daring top-liners, would have curled Dame Margaret's eyebrows.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is good clean fun, with or without the soap, and one of the most spirited entries of the season.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

May be boomer-baiting formula, but this ingratiating, big-hearted holiday treat is as British as plum pudding - and the closest thing on the market to the famous Ealing comedies.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

It's a real-life story adapted into a grown-up comedy that is warm, winning and sexy. Call it "The Full Auntie."

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Remains a genial lesson in how to both honor and subvert womanly expectations.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Inspired by a true story, this slight but charming and nicely balanced comedy tells the tale of a group of middle-aged women in a Yorkshire village who decide to pose nude for the dozen photographs in a fund-raising calendar.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

The result is a movie that washes down without much thinking or introspection, provides some laughs and a tear or two, and dishes up a little something to mull over with its messages about friendship and loyalty in the face of naked ambition.

USA Today Mike Clark

What the movie can't quite get over, no matter how hard the filmmakers try, is the story's built-in limitations.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Unfortunately, the material doesn't justify the talent. These women deserve more than Calendar Girls ultimately gives them.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Both Mirren and Walters are successfully cast against type.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

More like that crowd-pleasing UK fluff that requires great actresses to do wacky things. Mirren is such an easy, breezy presence that you might think she's playing the screenwriting equivalent of air.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A gently pleasing if mostly undramatic picture.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A film as clever and embracingly ribald as this shouldn't have to resort to cliche in the end; director Nigel Cole should have kept his girls in Britain and kept the mood light.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

There are many winning moments here, but director Nigel Cole (Saving Grace) sometimes imparts to the thing a terrible case of the cutes and an overeagerness to please.

Variety Derek Elley

Though the film is never dull, and playing by the cast is spirited, it's actually a surprisingly gentle movie, with no big "Full Monty"-like finale to send auds buzzing into the street.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Closer in texture and consistency to individually wrapped American cheese than good, tangy English cheddar. But even humble plastic-wrapped cheese has its virtues and so does this film.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

It's too good a story not to have been made into a movie. Yet Calendar Girls, directed by Nigel Cole ("Saving Grace"), is filled with lots of extras it doesn't need, when the bare-naked bones of the story would have been plenty.

TV Guide Angel Cohn

The caliber of the cast, led by Mirren and Walters, elevates the material above movie-of-the-week level, and viewers can relish seeing these fine actresses play against type.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The result is an overly long, overly cute film that is far too tickled with its own naughtiness. It truly is an instance of if you've seen the trailer, you've seen the film.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Everyone involved figured that sentiment trumps sloppiness. Original Soundtrack

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Very funny and surprisingly likable until it goes Hollywood.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

When the biggest compliment you can pay a picture is that it is professional and not smug, there's a little something missing, like invention.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The real-life calendar girls were actual human beings, and here they're merely comic patsies, lacking the distinctive personalities that made the men of "The Full Monty" so endearing, their final act of revelation so peculiarly dignified.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Don't race to see it unless a female "Full Monty" is just what you've been waiting for.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The actresses are terrific together, and it’s nice to see Helen Mirren smiling onscreen for a change. And although Calendar Girls is resolutely pleasant, the movie never really goes much beyond that.