80 for Brady – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Kyle Marvin
Writers – Sarah Haskins, Emily Halpern
Stars – Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Rita Moreno, Sally Field

This is a comedy which celebrates the acting excellence of Trish (Jane Fonda), Lou (Lily Tomlin), Maura (Rita Moreno) and Betty (Sally Field). Their combined years of experience exceed 200 years during which they have accumulated a multiplicity of awards. They come together to live the dream of going to the Superbowl while well into their eighties apart from one of them who insists that she is in her seventies. It is inspired by a true story of four women who set out on such an expedition but these four “octogenarians” get into all sorts of unlikely scrapes as they go on their life-affirming adventure.

They have been meeting for years, a tradition which began when three of them came round to cheer up Lou, who was undergoing chemotherapy. The television got stuck on a game between the Patriots and the Jets in which a young Tom Brady plays a starring role for the Patriots and he became their hero. The “girls” converted the event into a tradition and they meet each year bedecked in their Patriot team jerseys to recreate the original event including all sorts of unlikely details such as knocking over a bowl of crisps and changing a light bulb which occurred at the original event. It is now 2017 and they get the idea to go to the Superbowl in Houston.

There is a multiplicity of problems to overcome – not least where to get the tickets – in order to get to see the game. Lou is the driving force that keeps the others focused on the task at hand. They are a disparate bunch. Betty is an academic mathematician whose husband is an absent-minded mathematician and is obsessed with mathematics. Maura is recently widowed and has placed herself in a retirement home as a result. She is inclined to doze off. Trish writes erotic fiction and is super elegant, looks the part and still has an eye for well-put-together men and they for her. Meanwhile, Lou’s cancer has not gone away and she is avoiding opening a letter which contains information in relation to her latest tests. These four actors work with verve together and create the most marvellous atmosphere in their collective scenes. Lou (Tomlin) is the most substantial role but Field and Moreno each have a principal role in relation to an unlikely event when they are in Houston. Trish’s part is more conventional but Fonda brings all her skills into play to make her a woman of interest and needless to say allure.  Tom Brady plays himself and as an actor, he is not in the same league as his four fans but he is a magnificent male specimen and the four fans just adore him for being just that.

Brady for 80 is a wonderful celebration of four long-term friends going out to have a ball when their years have reached large numbers. It shows that age is no match for friendship and fun. There is no time like the present. Sit back and let Tomlin, Fonda, Moreno and Fields bring you on an unlikely fun-filled adventure.