this time! I mean, they do briefly, as the movie opens with a lockdown-set Zoom sequence. Via video chat, Keaton’s bumbling Diane fumbles with the technology, muting herself and then turning into a potato by filter. They read. We learn that the pandemic has caused the restaurant that Steenburgen’s Carol runs to close, and her husband Bruce has a “minor” heart attack. Court’s out of session for Bergen’s judge character Sharon. She soon retires.
The movie works because its punchlines work and because its characters are tart. It’s all one big exaggeration for the sake of as many laughs as possible. Even Diane, the Rose of the group, gets in a barb or two; she jokes about the team behind Viv’s face . The movie makes it easy, seductive even, to turn off your brain and politics. Of course when these four white women break down in the Italian countryside, they gasp in delight when a cop rolls up.