Movie Review: 'Food Club'

Food Club is a movie about desire, specifically the ways in which desire never goes away. Regardless of age and experience, desire always remains and the balancing act of having desire versus how realistic such a desire is, is not a math problem anyone wants to have. For instance, an elderly person has a desire to sleep with an attractive and much younger person. Some factor might make that possible but it’s unlikely and the reality of that notion can weigh on a person.

The characters in the new Danish dramedy, Food Club, are confronting this question of desire head on. For Marie (Kristina Oleson), the desire is to keep her life as it is, with her husband of 40 years and her life as a grandmother and an accountant. That desire is upended when her husband desires another woman and the end of his marriage. The husband is also her boss which means she’s also out of a job at a time when someone of her age isn’t getting much of a look for new job opportunities.

Berling is in a similar situation, although she doesn’t have a husband to consider. Rather, she’s dealing with her desire to still be desired by men and how that desirability keeps her feeling young. Her lifestyle has led to a rift between Berling and her daughter, who wants Berling to act like a more typical woman of her age, a grandmother. Berling wants a relationship with her daughter’s family but she’s not interested in compromising her desire to be desired.

Vanja (Kirsten Lehfeldt) meanwhile, hasn’t given much thought to desire or desirability in many years. Vanja lost her beloved husband several years ago, as we join the story, and she’s dedicated herself to preserving her memory of him by regularly visiting his grave and avoiding meeting anyone who might replace him in her heart. This has led to minor conflict with her daughter but more conflict with her friends, Marie and Berling, who each feel that she should not stay so locked in her loneliness.

The plot kicks in when Berling and Vanja agree to join Marie for a trip to Italy for a food retreat. In Perugia there is an idyllic cottage that doubles as a lovely vacation space where tourists come and spend a week and learn to cook Italian food. Berling and Vanja are hopeful that the trip might help Marie face her future and put her cheating husband in the past. When the exact opposite happens and Marie burrows even further into delusional thoughts about winning him back, keeping her job and continuing life as if nothing happened, it threatens their friendship.

A movie about three elderly women dealing with relationship woes isn’t exactly hip, top of mind subject matter. It’s not built for Twitter or other similar social media sharing. Food Club has to be better than average to find a place in the modern movie marketplace and, for me, I feel that it is better. The three stars at the center of Food Club are wonderfully charming and compelling and the direction by Barbara Rothenborg is lovely, well edited and paced.

Food Club is a strong reminder that aging is not the end of life. The things that drive the lives of the young, still drive the lives of those who’ve lived many years. Everyone needs to make the most of every moment of life, regardless of age, and the makers of Food Club do a wonderful job of demonstrating the desire to keep going and finding new experiences and seeking the pleasures that society often reserves for the youthful. It's also wonderful at allowing characters to make and learn from their mistakes, and how universal that is, how learning and growing never ends as you get older.

And, the makers of Food Club accomplish all of this while never making their movie feel dusty or old. The film doesn’t make a joke of getting old. The characters are aware of their age but rather than make awkward wisecracks about the trouble with getting old, these characters are focused on living life to the fullest, they're in the moment. This helps to keep the movie out of the realm of other, similar movies with elderly lead characters who constantly turn being old into an embarrassing punchline. It’s refreshing to see getting older with a little dignity. Why is that such a rare thing in comedy?