Queen Bees a star-studded, honest senior rom-com
Queen Bees (PG, 100 mins) Directed by Michael Lembeck Reviewed by
Helen is an independent older woman, who nonethe-less has managed to set fire to her own house. Waiting for repairs, Helen grudgingly consents to moving into the Pine Grove retirement community for a month or two, at her waspish daughter’s insistence.
And there, as the immutable laws of comedy say she must, Helen meets a new group of friends and a potential new beau. Complications and hilarity ensue, etc, etc.
Put like that, Queen Bees could have been the usual barely tolerable pile-on of saccharine and limp innuendo that Hollywood routinely dishes out in the guise of senior grade rom-coms. See The Book Club, et al.
But writer Donald Martin and director Michael Lembeck deliver Queen Bees as an ever-so-slightly grittier and more honest film than the poster and the trailer are hinting at. In the lead, Ellen Burstyn is taking absolutely no prisoners as Helen, revelling in a character who is written as far more than just the widowed remainder of a fairytale marriage, which is the usual fate of women in these films.
Joining Burstyn, James Caan has less to work with as loveinterest Dan – and initially the film fails to make him attractive at all, but a tonal shift at the halfway mark throws a warmer light on Dan, and Caan – although clearly in some physical pain – blossoms accordingly.
Against Helen, as Janet the undisputed Queen of the Queen Bees – the cool crowd in this home – Jane Curtin is flat-out wonderful, delivering every put-down with an acrobatic roll of the eyes and a mouth pursed tighter than a cat’s bottom. The fabulous Loretta Devine steps into the sassy blackfriend stereotype and makes it seem at least partially fresh again.
Queen Bees does many things well. Even the obligatory Alzheimers’ sub-plot – revealed by a subdued Christopher Lloyd – is so unexpectedly well written and choreographed I can only assume it is based on a real-life event.
Of the predatory pricing and ludicrous share-market returns, a feature of the retirement home industry, we hear nothing at all. As long as we accept that these are wealthy people for whom such things are a non-issue, I guess that’s not a problem.
Expecting not much, Queen Bees delivered its share of pleasant surprises. Not a great film, but it could have been so, so much worse.