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Calendar Girls
Buena Vista Pictures / Walt Disney Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for nudity, some language and drug-related material
Starring
Julie Walters,
Helen Mirren,
Linda Bassett,
Ciaran Hinds,
Penelope Wilton,
John Alderton,
George Costigan,
and
Annette Crosbie
This film is based on the true story of the unconventional efforts of the Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire, England to raise money for leukemia research.
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Tim Firth
Juliette Towhidi
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Nigel Cole
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: May 4, 2004
Video: May 4, 2004
Theatrical: December 19, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
108 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
UK |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
83
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.
75
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
The film's appeal is universal, not just female, and, best of all, it's based on a true story.
75
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.
75
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.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
Charming movie,
75
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.
75
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.
75
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.
70
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."
70
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
Remains a genial lesson in how to both honor and subvert womanly expectations.
70
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.
67
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.
63
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.
63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Unfortunately, the material doesn't justify the talent. These women deserve more than Calendar Girls ultimately gives them.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Both Mirren and Walters are successfully cast against type.
63
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.
63
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
A gently pleasing if mostly undramatic picture.
63
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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.
60
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.
58
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.
50
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Everyone involved figured that sentiment trumps sloppiness.
Original Soundtrack
50
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Very funny and surprisingly likable until it goes Hollywood.
50
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.
50
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.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Don't race to see it unless a female "Full Monty" is just what you've been waiting for.
40
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.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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