Il est toujours temps d'aimer

From the promos it sounds like an upbeat film, but the sad parts start right at the beginning. It's more about loss as you age, and trying to find a meaningful life in spite of it. Good acting but waaah. 😦

Carol Peterson, played by Blythe Danner, is a widow in her 60s or early 70s living in Southern California with no one but her dog for close company. Her daughter has moved away; her husband has been gone for 20 years; and she spends most of her time watching TV, playing golf and bridge, and drinking wine. Over a short period, her life livens up considerably and she meets new people, does new things, and moves towards unwrapping the cocoon of age that's been winding about her. That's the plot.

This movie isn't as much about plot as it is examining life in our time. When did you stop looking ahead? When did you start spending too much time reviewing your life? When do you stop forming relationships? How do you continue with your life while enduring the blows life hands you? These are questions we must all deal with at some time or another. I think this movie handles these questions more honestly that most Hollywood films.

The movie is very well acted by terrific talent in the form of Danner, June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place, Sam Elliott, and Martin Starr. You should recognize most or all of these names if you watch movies and TV. It's a very, very accomplished cast. Although this movie isn't strictly a comedy, Danner, Squibb, Perlman, and Place all get in their comedy licks like they've been doing it all their lives, which they have.

Worth seeing. Opening soon.

We saw this movie through the San Jose Camera Cinema Club.

Most of the other reviews of this film which I read were negative. There is no way to tell the age of those reviewers, but my age is 68. I like this movie, which was touching but not maudlin. It's true to life to me. My wife is still living, and I don't have a big enough retirement savings account to buy a boat and a Cadillac. But we are fortunate enough to have our only child in the same city, and our only grandson (and very likely the only one there will ever be) there also, so we are already ahead of Bill and Carol. But you have to be in old age to appreciate this story. If one of us dies, what will the other do? Would we consider remarriage? How would you find somebody, if you wanted to? If one of our beloved pets dies, what will we do? Do we want to start with another one, even an older one which might die before we do? Do we go to a retirement facility or keep the too-large house? Old age is generally not exciting, even if you have enough money to eat and buy medicine, and it's little things where you find happiness (even if it is TV or golf). This was intentionally a low-key story, which didn't answer any of the questions it raised. We only know tiny tidbits about Carol, but nobody else. Where did Bill come from, other than Dallas? What does Carol's daughter do, and where does she live, and why haven't they seen each other more often? You can draw you own conclusions or just accept this little snippet of Carol's life and move on, as she will, but to what we don't know. It's life, where we come into contact with people but know nothing about them. And nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. If you are lucky enough to have a tomorrow.

Reading the synopsis for this movie I thought I'd be in for an hour of sentimental slush about senior citizens like myself, but it isn't like that at all. Sure, it's about the kind of problems we old folk can encounter, and therefore how it will register with other sections of the population I can't tell. Some won't have any patience with it because it doesn't affect them. Yet. A pity, as they're the ones who'd benefit most from seeing it.

It's an intelligent, well-written, tactfully directed, thoughtful and touching movie. It is luxuriously cast with a bunch of top-level character actors who fill the screen with their warmth. It's invidious to single anyone out but I'm going to mention Martin Starr, an actor I don't remember encountering before in spite of his many credits. His scenes with Blythe Danner are particularly good. Danner herself, the movie's linchpin, is vulnerable without being self-pitying or cloying in any way. A fine performance in a fine film.

... is old age. Even though it is the most powerful movie villain of them all and takes many of our favorite actors away before their time.

This film is mainly for fans of Ms. Danner. Wait. Let me explain. Usually when a reviewer makes such a comment it is a negative. No it is not. That is this reviewer's heartfelt view and it is a fair one.

As a film, as a movie competing with 100s of 1000s of other movies for pride of place in the minds of viewers present and future, this film is simply OK.

It is a fairly well-paced and fairly authentic look at the oddities and awkwardness of growing old (a topic of acquired taste UNLESS YOU ALREADY ARE OLD) and holds up really well until the last 30 minutes when the writer simply can no longer control himself, and a lot of strange and improbable and non-authentic things suddenly start to happen.

But as a vehicle for Ms. Danner's fans, it is a joy. For those with short memories, Ms. Danner brought a certain light and energy and beauty to her many films and frankly she was missed. Another IMDb reviewer perhaps sums it up better than we do -- "she is in every scene" the reviewer said, and the message was clear.

Meanwhile that aforementioned silent villain moves on. For students of film -- and of Life -- there is a short scene with Max Gail. Not only was he a major TV star in his day, but he was considered so macho that they used him for shaving commercials (which requires EXTRA testosterone.) I did not recognize him at all.