DVD Release Date: May 4, 2004

Cast: Julie Walters, Helen Mirren, Penelope Wilton, Annette Crosbie

click here to buy this DVD from Amazon

By Lisa Zlotnick

Calendar Girls is a classic tale of ordinary women fashioning an extraordinary idea to raise money for an important charity. Based on a true story, 11 British women pose in the nude for their local Women’s Institute yearly calendar. Their goal is to raise money for a new couch to be placed in their local hospital in remembrance of a loved one lost to Leukemia. When all is said and done, not only were these women able to buy a couch with the money earned, but after creating a media frenzy in their hometown and abroad, they’ve come up with enough money to buy a whole new wing at their local hospital.

Annie played by Julie Walters is a woman who lost her husband, John, to a terrible bout of cancer. With the aid of her best friend, Chris, Helen Mirren, the ladies come up with the idea of creating a calendar to raise money to buy a couch for the hospital. At first this idea seems preposterous but with much pushing and shoving, the ladies convince their friends to join in and raise the money for John.

There are many embarrassing yet humorous moments in this film when the ladies must bare it all to the camera. Not only do we see the embarrassment portrayed by these actresses as the characters themselves, but we see the actresses themselves shifting in their birthday suits behind the camera.

Helen Mirren plays a wonderful Chris, who basically is the leader of the group. Her initial idea was incredibly risky yet the group feels if they get out the word by publicizing the release of the calendar, maybe a few local newscasters and papers will show up for their press conference. What they weren’t expecting was a room filled with press eager to follow their every move. Both Annie and Chris come home to mounds of letters from women praising their efforts and soon enough Hollywood calls them to appear on the Jay Leno show in California. What once was a small charity is now a national phenomenon.

After catching word of this story, a Hollywood producer calls the ladies to ask for movie rights. They, in turn, grant them to her, for a pleasant sum I’m assuming and voila, we have a major motion picture on our hands.

This DVD is presented in Widescreen (2.35:1) including Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, a French language track and Spanish subtitles. The features included are plenty enough for the average DVD viewer but for anyone who is a diehard fan of this film, you will be disappointed.

The first feature we have is “The Naked Truth” Documentary. This documentary basically interviews the real women behind the plum jam and fruitcakes. These women are all very excited for their story to be told and it’s really a pleasure to see the real life women that actually made this whole phenomenon come to fruition. They basically rehash the story and even let us in on a few details that the film doesn’t hit.

“Creating the Calendar” Documentary. This feature shows both the actresses and the real gals discussing their experiences with shooting the calendar. They discuss what made them nervous and how they conquered their fears of being naked in front of the camera. It also interviews both camera men for the shoots including the gentleman who shot the original calendar and the man who shot the calendar for the film. It’s interesting to see just how close the photographer for the movie stayed true to the original setups for the calendar poses.

Lastly, we have a few deleted scenes which don’t do much to propel the story forward and therefore they belong on the cutting room floor.

At first glance, I’d say the demographic for Calendar Girls is mainly aimed towards a female audience. But after talking with a few guys who’ve seen the film, they say that it’s surely entertaining and they found it intriguing. So I’d say that this is a fun movie for all and since it’s based on a true story, it makes it even more interesting to sit down and check out this tale. Whether or not I’d go out and buy this film is another story but it’s surely worth a rental.

DVD Film Score: B
DVD Features: C+
DVD Overall Score: B-

Click here for the "Calendar Girls" DVD page