80 for Brady is one of those movies that drew me in from the first trailer, as it looked like four fabulous actresses having fun in a crowd-pleasing film. I did not expect to see people (mostly men) on Twitter complain how “older women should not have sexual thoughts as we are supposed to look up to them,” so I knew I had to be sat in the theater day one. Were my expectations super high for this movie? No, but I was pleasantly surprised with the result of certain aspects of the story.
Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field are all delights in their roles; I looked forward to seeing each of them on screen. However, each of their characters are a little bit on-dimensional — we have the smart mathy one, the flirty one, etc. With that, each character is also experiencing and representing a different aspect of getting older. There are so many things that go into the journey of aging that we are afraid to talk about and I think this movie is at it’s strongest when it focuses on those aspects. Topics discussed include not wanting to know if a disease has come back, losing your significant other, trying to find love and standing up for yourself to your partner. Even though I am not within the age range of the leading ladies, each of these topics hit me hard emotionally and you can feel the impact of those messages through the performances. This is when the film is at its strongest.
The film starts to fall apart when they try to incorporate the ladies attending the Super Bowl. Now, I did not go into this film expecting it to be realistic, but it was the parts where they try to get into the game and everything that happens during the game just did not do it for me. Tom Brady also needed a few more acting lessons but the rest of the players were entertaining enough. There is not much to say past that, but all the elderly folks in my theater gasping at every moment during the game as if they did not know what was going to happen kept me very entertained.
This is the perfect movie to put on when they boys are watching football with a group of girlies and a glass of wine, which is why I am giving this a Luvdisc on my Pokémon Rating System.