Poms

Apparently based on a true story, this gentle dramedy about making the most of the time you have left is aimed at the AARP demographic. After a terminal cancer diagnosis, Martha (Diane Keaton) quits chemotherapy, sells most of her possessions, and leaves New York City, driving south to spend her remaining months in Sun Springs, a spacious retirement village in Georgia. “I came here to die,” Martha crisply informs her sassy southern belle neighbor, Sheryl (Jacki Weaver), a substitute teacher who’s hiding her teenage grandson (Charlie Tahan) in the “adults-only” condominium complex. Sheryl retorts: “You were dying yesterday, and you're going to be dying next week. In the meantime, you should be dancing your ass off.” Exasperated by Sun Springs’ rules and regulations, spunky Martha recalls a youthful dream by starting a cheerleading club, much to the consternation of prissy, power-hungry Vicki (Celia Weston). Joining their gyrating granny ensemble are timid Rhea Perlman, sultry Pam Grier, dancer Patricia French, aerobics-expert Carol Sutton, yoga-enthusiast Ginny MacColl, and baton-twirling Phyllis Somerville. And they are coached by teenaged Chloe (Alisha Boe). An age-defying Golden Girls meets Bring it On hybrid, director Zara Hayes’s Poms is blandly bittersweet and so one-dimensional that none of the characters have significant backstories. Optional. (S. Granger)