Mr. Morgan's Last Love

What starts as a very intelligent, well-acted movie about the nature of relationships and the need for connection, turns dramatically and disappointingly into a sentimental mushpile of a soap opera, and then gets worse. Extremely well-acted up to a point, the characters are fleshed out as real people and you can for the most part understand and empathize with them. Michael Caine's weird attempt at an American accent doesn't quite undermine his characterization of the professor, but it is distracting and sounds too false. He did a pretty OK American accent in Cider House Rules, but nowhere else.

I was very impressed by most of this movie, including the pretty scenery, and the nicely conceived and rounded characters. About 2/3 of the way through however, it goes off the rails. Another reviewer described this movie as having sincerity, and I would agree with that up to a point. There are few false notes in the script, but when they happen they are real clunkers that drag the movie down like an anchor. This may be because the rest of the movie is so sincere and real that the false notes feel just that more false, but I don't think that's quite it.

There is a very soap opera moment at around the 3/4 point which not only feels contrived, but which pulls the story in a really unsatisfying direction. While it's headed in this disastrous direction it's actually succeeding in giving the characters life in a meaningful and sincere way, but then another ridiculous plot device drives it further into the ground. And then another. And another.

And the ending is just stupid. Unwatchably preposterously stupid. Given what we know these characters have gone through, and how much they've grown as human beings, it's outside the realm of believability and is antithetical to the story, erasing the purpose of the movie and voiding its intelligence with a single swipe. Worse, the movie wants you to view the ending as having the sort of lofty nobility that would cause you to leap out of your seat and applaud, which I find personally disgusting. Would that I had leaped out of my seat earlier and left. If that particular ending was in the original source material, then so much the worse for the source material because as portrayed it didn't do the movie any favors.

Michael Caine is getting old. Playing an old man, acting or real? He is at his best. Gone is his dry humor and whit, gone is also his regular British accent (apart from a few strongly emotional scenes when he suddenly looses the American accent he is supposed to have).

This is a very odd movie, difficult to put into any frame. The acting is nothing else but superb, not a single moment without complete realism.

Watch this move alone or with your significant other, do not forget the paper napkins, because this is very emotional. My eyes are still wet, this is a movie that will remain in my mind for a long time.

While this is a bit lighter in tone than the Oscar winner Amour, it seems to try to go for some of the same feelings and touches. Michael Caine is impeccable in his role, so is Michelle Godet, who has a weird role to play. It is walking a fine line, not really declaring what the relationship is between those two characters and this might be one of the best things that happen.

Through a bit of lost in Translation in and you have a very fine movie. It's weirdness might either attract you more to it or appall you a bit. Whatever the case you can't fault it's story, about lost love and maybe even lost hope. Family is a big part of life and it is here too. A bit of Song of Marion is in here too. So good ingredients, not perfect but very good movie still

This movie is so emotional and from the very beginning,I was carried away with the sympathy and very doleful atmosphere throughout the movie. Michael Cain did a wonderful job here. He was able to maintain his character till the end. The soulful music is just right to the theme which it made the setting more captivating.The other cast were wonderful as well. After watching this movie, it makes me more reluctant to visit Paris in the near future.This is one of the great movies I have ever seen in my life. I wish there is an English version of the book where the movie was taken from.

This is a must to see movie.

"Sometimes you meet someone that requires all the love you have to give." Matthew Morgan (Caine) has just lost his wife and his world no longer makes sense. Living in Paris and unable to speak the language he only has one friend left. On a train one day he meets Pauline (Poésy) and strikes up an instant friendship. After Matthew tries something drastic his two estranged children show up and old tensions come back. This is a hard movie to describe. It's not boring but not much happens. It's slow moving but keeps you interested. Michael Caine is great in this and this is not so much a love story but more of a redemption story. I am finding it hard to come up with something to say about this not because I didn't like it but because of the subject. This is really just another widow father and estranged children movie but this feels like so much more. This is a movie where you just have to see it to see what I mean. I recommend this. Overall, a cookie cutter plot but anything but a cookie cutter movie. I give it a B+.