Calendar Girls (2003)

Director:

Nigel Cole

Writers:

Juliette Towhidi (written by) and
Tim Firth (written by)

Release Date:

12 September 2003 (Norway)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

They dropped everything for a good cause.

Plot:

A Women's Institute chapter's fundraising effort for a local hospital by posing nude for a calendar becomes a media sensation.

Plot Keywords:

Calendar | Yorkshire | Leukemia | Hospital | Small Town

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 12 nominations

Cast

Helen Mirren	...	Chris
Julie Walters	...	Annie
John Alderton	...	John
Linda Bassett	...	Cora
Annette Crosbie	...	Jessie
Philip Glenister	...	Lawrence
Ciarán Hinds	...	Rod (as Ciaran Hinds)
Celia Imrie	...	Celia
Geraldine James	...	Marie
Penelope Wilton	...	Ruth
George Costigan	...	Eddie
Graham Crowden	...	Richard
John Fortune	...	Frank
Georgie Glen	...	Kathy
Angela Curran	...	May

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for nudity, some language and drug-related material.

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:12 (video rating) (2003) | UK:12A (original rating) | Hungary:14 | Finland:K-3 | South Korea:15 | Taiwan:R-12 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Brazil:12 | Canada:PG | Germany:o.Al. (bw) | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | New Zealand:PG | Norway:A | Peru:PT | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39650)

Filming Locations:

Buckden, North Yorkshire, England, UK

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

Anne Reid was offered a major role, but choose to do Roger Michell's The Mother (2003/I) instead.

Goofs:

Continuity: The photographer of the calendar shoot used a 35mm camera, yet the proofs are contact prints of medium-format roll-film negatives.

Quotes:

Chris: Course you've got a body worth looking at.
Ruth: Just look at that parking.
Chris: Ruth.
Ruth: Doesn't it annoy you when people take up two spaces.

Movie Connections:

References "Friends" (1994)

Soundtrack:

You Upset Me Baby

a joyous comedy

One of the most delightful films of recent years, `Calendar Girls,' a distaff version of `The Full Monty,' is the true story of a group of middle-aged English women who became international celebrities when they designed and posed for a nude fundraising calendar that sold millions of copies worldwide. Julie Walters and Helen Mirren head a wonderful cast, with Walters as a woman whose husband dies of leukemia and Mirren as her best friend who comes up with the idea of the calendar as a way of both honoring his memory and raising money for the local hospital.

The risk for any `feel good' comedy is that it will become cloying, coy or cutesy. Luckily, `Calendar Girls' boasts an enormously witty screenplay and first-rate performances by its highly gifted cast. Each of the `girls' is given her own unique personality so that we see them not just as a group, united in this inspiring endeavor, but as individuals working through their own personal demons on the rode to the project's completion. The women face the expected roadblocks and snafus in the form of `shocked,' disapproving voices in the community, but their belief in the rightness of their cause brushes all such problems aside.

This charming film provides more genuine, out-and-out laughs than almost any comedy of recent times. `Calendar Girls' is heartwarming, touching and inspiring – and what more could one ask from a `feel-good' film than that?