This is a comedy drama based on a true story, the nudity obviously is quite essential to the story, but there isn't a complete comparison to The Full Monty. It is 1999, and Chris Harper (Golden Globe nominated Dame Helen Mirren) and Annie Clarke (Julie Walters) are members of the Knapely (Yorkshire, England) Women's Institute, and every year they produce a calendar based on the local scenes. After Annie's husband John (John Alderton) dies of leukemia, Chris comes up with an idea that also relates to John's love of sunflowers, and expressing yourself (or whatever),to pose for a nude calendar. Each individual member poses hiding their breasts behind something, or facing away showing their bottoms. Soon enough they get the pictures printed onto proper calendars, and all they need is permission from the Women's Institute board, but really it's their local president Marie (Little Britain's Geraldine James),who says OK, well actually "Oh, sod it. Go on then." Chris and Annie weren't expecting the calendars to sell out so quickly, but they also weren't expecting to go to Hollywood! In the end, after their American promotion, and a bit of banter they return of England, and it says that they have raised a lot of money for a leukemia charity, and to buy a sofa dedicated to John. Also starring Shaun of the Dead's Penelope Wilton as Ruth Reynoldson, One Foot in the Grave's Annette Crosbie as Jessie, Celia Imrie as Celia, Linda Bassett as Cora, Georgie Glen as Kathy, Angela Curran as May Wilkinson, Rosalind March as Trudy, Ciaran Hinds as Rod Harper, EastEnders' Gillian Wright as Eddie's Woman and Jay Leno. It won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film. Dame Helen Mirren was number 7, and Julie Walters number 5 on The 50 Greatest British Actresses, Mirren was number 5, and Walters number 2 on Britain's Finest Actresses. Very good!

In the small town of Knapely, Yorkshire, England, Annie Clarke (Julie Walters) has just lost her husband, who was ill with leukemia. Inspired in his speech to the local Women's Institute, where he said that "the flowers of Yorkshire are like the women of Yorkshire", and "the last phase of the women of Yorkshire is always the most glorious", her best friend Chris Harper (Helen Mirren) decides to make a calendar with twelve local middle-age women nude to raise funds for the wing of leukemia treatment in the local hospital. The calendar becomes well succeeded, making them famous and affecting their lives.

"Calendar Girls" is a good dramatic comedy, with an interesting screenplay and great performances of Julie Walters and Helen Mirren. It becomes funnier because of the behavior clichés of the British husbands. I found hilarious the scene of the breakfast, when the husband tells his wife that she is nude in the newspaper, and then he asks for the bacon. This movie is a good entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Garotas do Calendário" ("Calendar Girls")

'Calendar Girls' has garnered inevitable comparisons with 'The Full Monty', going as far to be likened to that film's female version. One can see why, but both deserve to be judged on their own rather than compared in favourable or unfavourable terms and they are good films in their own way.

'The Full Monty' may be the funnier, cleverer and more poignant film, also prefer it overall. Getting that comparison out of the way, 'Calendar Girls' takes a gentler, less broad approach and manages to be an immensely likable film. It doesn't break new ground, but wisely doesn't try to do any more than it needs to and knows what it wants to be. There are things that are left unresolved, which means there are a few loose ends, and some of the last third is overblown with its showiness detracting and jarring with the rest of the film's gentle simplicity.

However, 'Calendar Girls' is very nicely filmed with attractive locations. Patrick Doyle's score is soothing and whimsical and Nigel Cole's direction is in perfect keeping with the gentle tone of the film without losing the pace.

A huge part of 'Calendar Girls' appeal is the cast, everybody does well but particularly excellent are Helen Mirren and Julie Walters. Both of them look luminous and both bring an ideal balance of comic timing and pathos.

While not breaking new ground, 'Calendar Girls' moves along at a good pace and is never dull. The script is tight and clever. There is some genuinely amusing humour that is of the genial, subtly witty kind (prefer this kind of humour actually though this is probably not a popular opinion) rather than the broad, vulgar kind. And there are some reflective and poignant emotional moments that give the film and already charming characters warmth and humanity.

Overall, lovely film that makes me proud to be British. 8/10 Bethany Cox