Thank the movie gods that after a drought we finally have a superhero movie this week. No, not the kind in which a spandex-clad manchild delivers faux-ironic schmuck humor, but the kind that assembles a group of seniors who happen to be (or become) friends. In these comedies, they become nursing-home cheerleaders, or go to the Super Bowl, or pretend to read 50 Shades of Grey. This time, they set out to get married and get high in South Florida.
The friendship at the heart of The Fabulous Four spans decades, with Bette Midler’s impulsive Marilyn as its chaotic center, for better and worse. Fresh off the death of one husband, Marilyn is ready to marry again, and summons her friends in Key West for a bachelorette celebration days before the rushed ceremony. But she and Lou (Susan Sarandon) are deeply estranged, leaving the misbehaving Kitty (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Alice (Megan Mullally) to find a way to maneuver Lou onto a plane to Florida.
As you might expect, it’s Marilyn’s deceased husband who plays a role in her and Lou’s bad blood. And the road to their reconciliation is also what you might expect, with Lou’s moments of public embarrassment and reclaimed inner fun arriving right on schedule.
You can’t blame the film for knowing its audience and playing directly to it. This is, after all, a movie that finds humor in Midler’s inability to figure out how to control her pool jets from her iPad. Shoehorned in is a gay-grandson subplot, a group of partying college kids following the foursome around, and a musical sequence purely for the hell of it. It gives us the kind of frivolous good time we want (and one less self-congratulatory than other comedies you might see in theaters right now). The Fabulous Four knows exactly the movie it is, and it’s easy to really enjoy yourself. Even so, you want it to be a little more.
