"Calendar Girls" - Documentary Film Review
It is often assumed that once people get old, they lose their love for the hobbies that sustained them in their youth, and that people are unable to learn new things as they age. Calendar Girls is living proof that there is no truth to either of those sentiments. This documentary is about a group of women, all over the age of 65, who live in southwestern Florida and make up a dance group known as the Calendar Girls. These women perform all across the state and raise money for Southeastern Guide Dogs, an organization that provides service dogs for veterans.
There are fantastical dance sequences in Calendar Girls that are not related to the women’s actual performances. Mundane activities like packing up a car after a performance are turned into choreographed music videos. This creates an off-kilter world that feels too good to be true. How is it possible that an organization like Calendar Girls exists? Yet, and this is the magic of both the documentary and the reality, the Calendar Girls are real. They are lifeline, community, and freedom. The most miraculous thing about the Calendar Girls is their existence.
In terms of filmmaking, it’s easy to get a little lost with the who’s who of the Calendar Girls. Not once are any of the women fonted with their name throughout the film, which makes it difficult to follow the thread of the individual stories. Calendar Girls also isn’t sure what story it wants to tell with all of these women. There’s no central narrative of the Calendar Girls preparing for a big event, or a new woman auditioning to join the group. Instead, the documentary plays like a hangout flick.
photo by love martinsen
Toward the end of the film, one of the women makes the difficult decision to leave the Calendar Girls due to health reasons, but this heartbreaking choice is only given three minutes of screentime. It feels incongruent with the rest of the documentary, in which all the women discussed how life-changing being a Calendar Girl has been. To lose this community and this outlet for creativity because of something beyond one’s control is surely devastating. Calendar Girls did a good job of endearing these women to the audience, but it also robbed the audience of the totality of this emotional journey and undercut the film’s emotional impact.
Ultimately, it’s hard not to be charmed by Calendar Girls. The women who make up the cast of characters will remind audiences of their own grandmothers or other older women in their lives. The film is charming, but only scratches the surface of what these women have to offer.
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