‘80 FOR BRADY’ RATED PG-13

Just in time for the festivities surrounding the final playoff game of the National Football League’s season, “80 for Brady” takes us back to the run-up to Super Bowl LI in 2017 when New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady would guide his team through a thrilling game.

This film, in which Brady appears as himself and also serves as producer, is the story of four mostly octogenarian Massachusetts women who gather to watch the Patriots with their fervor fueled by a love for a quarterback in the hunt for a fifth ring at the time.

“80 for Brady” is, in fact, inspired loosely by the true story of best friends living life to the fullest when they take a wild trip to Houston to see their hero, all the while wearing homemade jerseys sporting the film’s title.

The all-star cast includes Lily Tomlin’s Lou, a cancer survivor who for reasons that are understood from a flashback to chemotherapy treatments early in the century is a catalyst for the ladies love of Tom Brady.

Even though her cancer has been in remission, Lou is dodging calls from her oncologist about test results because she figures a trip to Texas could be her swan song now that the Patriots’ victory in the AFC championship game has them headed to the Super Bowl.

While Lou instigates the life-changing excursion, Jane Fonda’s Trish is the group’s most outgoing and outrageous member, who once had local fame as a model for an ad campaign and is now a novelist specializing in erotic football-themed fan fiction.

Falling in love too easily over and over is as problematic as her flirtatious behavior. Fitting for the Super Bowl is the release of her latest book titled “Between a Gronk and a Hard Place,” referring to Patriots’ tight end Rob Gronkowski.

The liveliest and best dancer of the quartet, Rita Moreno’s Maura, while still grieving over the loss of her husband, has moved into assisted living where her neighbor Mickey (Glynn Thurman) is drawn to her fiery passion for life.

The responsible member of the group is Sally Field’s Betty, a retired mathematics professor needing a little escape from her needy husband (Bob Balaban) who often needs a reminder to put on his pants. Is there a chance that Betty might cut loose a bit on this trip?

Hijinks come into play even before the ladies can make it to the Boston airport. First, they have to stage a jailbreak at the retirement facility to free Maura from the rules laid down by the despotic manager (Jimmy O. Yang).

Once in Houston, the fan festival NFL Experience beckons, and Betty taking up the challenge of a hot wings contest hosted by Guy Fieri portraying himself proves that being hungry will overcome extra spicy hot sauce.

With Trish being the glamorous one with a suitcase full of wigs, it’s no surprise that she’s soon caught up in a flirty hookup with smitten, fictional Super Bowl champion Dan O’Halloran (Harry Hamlin).

At a party on the night before the big game, more mischief ensues when some of them consume drug-laced edible gummies. Having a fondness for gambling, Maura ends up in a poker game where in her hallucinatory state every player looks like Guy Fieri.

Game day holds a few surprises, with Billy Porter being impressed with the women’s determination to become his backup dancers and Ron Funches comically taking his security guard role too seriously when confronting them.

What is the audience for “80 for Brady,” a female-centric story of obsession with a truly gifted football player? For a guy, it may work as a date night movie because at least there is some gridiron action to revive memories of an exciting game.

For fans of a storied franchise that once called Oakland home, the controversial “Tuck Rule Game” that resulted in the Patriots defeating the Raiders in the AFC championship game still lingers as a really bad memory.

The Silver and Black fandom would find a celebration of Brady an even more bitter pill to swallow knowing that the outcome of that contentious playoff game was the fact that Brady went on to win his first Super Bowl by prevailing over the St. Louis Rams.

One has to wonder how the film will play for audiences in Boston and Atlanta when actual footage from the game reveals incredible plays that upend what looked like an inevitable rout. The fan base sure to lament the outcome may not want to relive the experience.

A fair assessment of “80 for Brady” is that the leading ladies are not only effortlessly talented, but believable as lifelong friends bonding over their love of a team and hero worship of its star player.

Moreover, these senior citizen thespians look to be having an authentically good time throughout their adventure with an enthusiasm so infectious that, at least, it should rub off on the audience.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.