HotToastyRag I was so looking forward to this movie, but halfway through it, I actually considered turning it off. In general, I really like the "old folks get a second chance at love" movies, but this one really fell flat.A lonely widower and a kooky, slightly older vivacious woman hit it off. Newly Oscar-ed Christopher Plummer and an always delightful Shirley MacLaine—what could go wrong? The bad news: the plot went wrong. The good news: there was nothing wrong with the veteran actors' performances.If you're a hopeless fan of either actor, you'll probably end up seeing this one. After all, I did. But it's really not very good. Christopher Plummer's character just doesn't make any sense; he's cranky, he's hopeful, he's lusting after his maid, he's in love with Shirley MacLaine, he couldn't care less about Shirley MacLaine, he's capable, he's getting senile—See what I mean? And Shirley MacLaine's character is one feather shy of a loon. She's grandiose and full of life, and for absolutely no fathomable reason other than "new blood" she pursues her neighbor. She recreates the classic fountain scene from La Dolce Vita and expects the fuddy-duddy to break free of his shell and join in her eccentric behavior, when he's made it perfectly clear he has no such intention. I struggled to understand her character as well, and let me tell you, when you're battling confusion from both leads and boredom from the plot, it's not very fun.

Leonardo Lagos Remake (again) of a much better (latinamerican) movie. Argentinian cinema is (one of) the best industries in LatinAmerica, with some quality movies who have made their way in numerous festivals and even foreign category in the US-Hollywood backed Oscars. From time to time, US-cinema copies the movies, as we saw previously in K-Pax (remake/copy of "Man looking Southeast", which is the worst of these examples. Again, in this case, the US copy has stripped all of the good quality dialogues, and change the sarcastic humor for a more basic low standard jokes, including that translating sarcastic intelligent jokes from Spanish to English is not easy task. Not all is bad, as the good choice of cast with big names make it up for the effort as they do their best to try and save this simplistic version. Getting the latinamerican version with English subtitles is not that difficult, and if not, it's always worth it to learn Spanish, to better catch the many more humorist moments.

Brigid O Sullivan (wisewebwoman) Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer.Oh how sadly they fall between lifeless dialogue and inept scenes and a dispiriting depiction of old age.Shirley's wig was uber distracting as it was sooo bad.Direction was sketchy, the interior car scenes out of filmmaking 101.And offensive - scarpering out of a restaurant without paying the $400 owing? Any thought to the waiter who'd have to pay? And a pathological liar like Elsa getting away without challenge with every single fib? The Oscar winning duo were not served well here.For elder love depicted beautifully watch "Amour".

TxMike This is a remake of a 2005 Argentinian movie of the same name in Spanish. I found it on Netflix streaming movies.Shirley MacLaine is Elsa Hayes, a mid-70s widow living in a condo at 2801 St Charles Avenue in New Orleans. This is a single 3-story building with several condos about 700 to 800 square feet each. A freshly widowed 80-isn man, Christopher Plummer as Fred Barcroft, is moving into the adjacent condo. He seems to just be waiting for life to end, he spends lots of time just lying in his bed, with no interest in getting out of his living space.Elsa, on the other hand, seems full of life and right away she greets Fred and tries to get him to do things. When his caregiver is absent and his kitchen faucet starts to spray water everywhere, in desperation he gets Elsa to help him and she does. It becomes the catalyst for her to take a greater interest in him.This is a very nice movie, character studies of two people in the twilight time of their lives. They have issues with adult children, and she has to go to the dialysis clinic weekly. She doesn't seem to have much time left, but they begin to fall in love with each other. It isn't the kind of movie that can attract decent audiences at theaters against mega-buck blockbusters, but it is a very nice smaller movie with some of the best actors of their times.