Late for Dinner - Eine zeitlose Liebe

I just saw 'Late for Dinner' again on TV.

I forgot how much I liked it.

It's both simple and silly but it's also sweet and endearing.

I guess, for me it seems like an Australian film that was made in America. No big bang special effects. Great characters and a laconic but genuine feel about the story, the characters, and the overall impression.

Both guys are cute and believable in this really unbelievable yarn.

I cried when Willy met up with his 'old' wife Joy. They both did it so well.

No great intellectual challenges here...just a most enjoyable movie.

I just recently saw this film and enjoyed it thoroughly. It was not what I had expected. So many of the "freeze 'em" films take a comic or campy approach. But this film tries to deal with the actual problems that could arise if a person were able to disappear and then reappear some 30 years later. A nice treatment of the question.

...and had youthful dreams of his return, this movie will be cathartic for you. It will fill your heart. The first half of the film is rough, coarse, silly and contrived. The second half is a very well-tuned, sensitive portrayal of the dreamt-for return of your loved one. I'm 60 years old. This film has the greatest ending of any movie I have EVER seen.

I was spurred to do a quick review since "Late For Dinner" was shown today on one of my pay channels. My Comcast "interactive" program info, which I understand is furnished by TV Guide,(those well-known pimps for the big networks, E!, People magazine, & other arbiters of "taste") gave this move 1 Star on a scale of 5. I did a little scanning, and such "winners" such as Austin Powers(4), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome(2), and The Burning Bed(5) with Farrah Fawcett, got better ratings than this wonderful little movie. However, Amazon reviewers average nearly 5 stars for this movie. "Late For Dinner" is a perfect example of the terms "overlooked" and "underrated". The cast is perfect, and apart from Peter Berg, Peter Gallagher, and Marcia Gay Harden, has pretty much vanished without a trace. Brian Wimmer is great as Willie, the "hero", who comes home after nearly 30 years on ice in Pomona.

This movie was made a year before Mel Gibson's "Forever Young". The story here is quite similar, but with the lower budget and it's own pace, "Late For Dinner" works better for me. I love Mel Gibson, but here the absence of a big box office name here puts the focus where it ought to be, on the story itself.

The first time I saw it, it struck me as a largely a no-name cast, but looking at it today I see it a bit differently......Marcia Gay Harden, Peter Gallagher, Kyle Secor and Janeane Garofalo are all there.

Like most films of this sort, it requires 'suspension of disbelief', but once you let go, it is a charming and very enjoyable film. Watch it with someone you love.