Themes: Women's Friendship, Starting Over, Death of a Partner
Main Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Diane Ladd, Lainie Kazan
Release Year: 1993
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Based on the play by Ivan Menchell, this drama concerns three friends, Doris (Olympia Dukakis), Lucille (Diane Ladd), and Esther (Ellen Burstyn). All three live in the same Jewish community in Pittsburgh, are in their mid-to-late 50s, and have become widows within the past few months. Once a week, they gather to visit their husbands' graves and meet at a deli afterward to talk about their lives. Doris remains fiercely devoted to her late husband and takes her responsibilities as a widow seriously. Lucille is eager to get her feet back in the waters of dating, partly as revenge against her late husband, who often cheated on her, and partly because she's very lonely by herself. Esther is also not used to being alone after 39 years of marriage, but she doesn't feel ready to start dating again, at least not until she meets Ben (Danny Aiello), a former cop turned cab driver who gradually but firmly eases his way into her life. Doris is appalled when she discovers that Esther is dating again and loudly protests that she's being disrespectful to her late husband, while Lucille is more than a bit jealous that Esther snagged a good man before she could. Jerry Orbach and Lee Richardson appear in a brief prologue sequence. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The lives of widowed yentas is unusual subject matter for a film by African-American Bill Duke, who made his name as a character actor specializing in seedy villains, and whose previous directorial efforts (such as A Rage in Harlem) had focused on urban black America. Whatever the logic behind it, The Cemetery Club works pretty well as a romantic dramedy for the older set, with laughs offsetting tears in the usual ways. Its limited appeal to important demographics left the film without much of an audience, but it does gather a handful of the top actresses of their age group (Olympia Dukakis, Diane Ladd, Ellen Burstyn) as well as Danny Aiello playing his usual brusque but goodhearted character. The result is a predictable but reasonably satisfying consideration of whether to remain slavishly devoted to the past or strive for future enjoyment. The sputtering romantic lives of elder women makes for refreshing subject matter; such characters rarely take center stage in mainstream film, and when they do, it's often as cheery fountains of wisdom who seem impervious to their twilight loneliness. Dukakis' and Burstyn's characters initially view the flirtatious Ladd as an undignified embarrassment, making them complicit with society's discomfort about women with wrinkles continuing to pursue a sex life. The characters' varying reactions to their sudden eligibility delineates them as firm and familiar personality types, and gives The Cemetery Club dimension beyond its standard components. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Hilary M. Rosenfeld - Costume Designer, Bill Duke - Director, John Carter - Editor, Howard Hurst - Executive Producer, David Manson - Executive Producer, Philip Rose - Executive Producer, Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Sidney James - Musical Direction/Supervision, Maher Ahmad - Production Designer, Steven Poster - Cinematographer, David Brown - Producer, Sophie Hurst - Producer, Bonnie Palef-Woolf - Producer, Bonnie Palef - Producer, Gene Serdena - Set Designer, Greg W. Elam - Stunts, Jay Presson Allen - Screenwriter, Ivan Menchell - Screenwriter, Ivan Menchell - Play Author
