‘The Fabulous Four’: Bette Midler and Susan Sarandon Are the Best Part of This Serviceable Comedy

Alci Rengifo

The only reason to watch “The Fabulous Four” comes in two names. Bette Midler and Susan Sarandon make this small, by-the-book comedy that would have no steam if it wasn’t for the two of them. The topics are all too familiar; Aging can be fun if we try, but not always, Love doesn’t get any easier, and past wounds can still sting. All you need sometimes is a sunny getaway with silver fox hunks and champagne. Maybe on some level we will always need movies like this and this one has some breezily fine moments before leaving the altar.

An opening narration informs us that Louise aka Lou (Sarandon) and Marilyn (Midler) were once college besties until something came between them. That something was Marilyn marrying Lou’s boyfriend. Now, years later, he is dead, Marilyn is a widow and she’s going to marry again. Lou never let go of her broken-hearted grudge, so Marilyn only invites their other besties, marijuana farmer Kitty (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Alice (Megan Mullally), a professional singer. But Kitty and Alice refuse to leave Lou out and invite her to Key West, Florida, under the false claim she has won a six-pawed cat at the Hemingway House. Of course, once they arrive the truth is revealed and Lou is left simmering. But while taking an angry stroll, she literally bumps into Ted (Bruce Greenwood), a charming local bar owner.

“The Fabulous Four” thus functions like a brisk, slapped together cousin of movies such as “Book Club” or “The First Wives Club.” For director Jocelyn Moorhouse, this feels like a light exercise before gearing up for something richer. Moorhouse has mostly been doing TV after a string of big dramas in the ‘90s and 2010s like “How to Make an American Quilt,” “A Thousand Acres” and “The Dressmaker.” The appeal of a comedy like this makes sense considering the talent involved represents the kind of strong, self-sufficient women in Moorhouse’s work. You don’t need to look further than Sarandon, who has been in the public eye recently for being outspoken on the Gaza war. Her Lou is a doctor who has stubbornly stayed single because she’s both independent and eternally resentful over what happened with Marilyn.

But the screenplay by Ann Marie Allison and Jenna Milly isn’t a serious exploration of a friendship trying to mend. The plot is a convenient vehicle for the movie’s slapstick gags and boomer humor. Sarandon is having fun being the bookish introvert, blushing on camera when crashing into Ted’s bicycle. Midler too seems to bask in playing the quirky, somewhat ditzy friend who refuses to recognize why Lou carries a grudge. The rest is mostly a parade of easy jokes and eye rollers. Marilyn tries to cheer up Lou by giving her a sex today she later uses to stop a thief. A ferry glide turns into buffoonish near tragedy and there are Hemingway references all over the place. We also learn about how there’s a large population of chickens in Key West that no one can explain. People get accidentally stoned and everyone pushes Lou to set up a date with her handsome new friend. Alas, Alice is underserviced with being overwritten as a sex-hungry chaser of every male in her vicinity. There’s nothing wrong with that. There just isn’t more to the character. A funnier side story involves Kitty’s daughter, a fanatical Christian who becomes convinced her mother is in a satanic cult.

As a momentary escape, “The Fabulous Four” is serviceable and has one or two smarter angles involving someone’s son in the closet, and an ending that is happy but not predictable. If only Moorhouse didn’t go for an almost cringe musical number where everyone sings “I Can See Clearly Now.” There is only so much corniness one can take, especially when even Midler doesn’t seem up to the task. But one shouldn’t be too mean here. A movie like this is made for a specific audience that needs this kind of daydream. There are better ones out there but for those seeking something at the multiplex that isn’t about Minions, tornadoes or men in colorful spandex, this is a forgettable but momentarily distracting entertainment with a few legends.

“The Fabulous Four” releases July 26 in theaters nationwide.