paora1 Tedious and annoying movie , it was so bad we walked out !

Neil Welch Emily (Diane Keaton) has adjusted to being widowed a year ago in all respects other than financially. She is trying to keep her poor finances a secret from the other residents of the upmarket apartment house she lives in when she encounters Donald (Brendan Gleeson), known locally as The Tramp, who lives in a shack built from scrap in thr grounds of a long-demolished hospital. Donald happily keeps himself to himself and makes to demands on anyone, but the owners of the site have served an eviction notice on him so that they can redevelop the site. Donald's instinctive reaction is aggressive bluster, because he doesn't know what else to do. And so Emily starts helping him to obtain Adverse Possession (Squatters Rights). Which doesn't go down well in her social circle.Hampstead is an affluent, upper-middle class area of north London which is mildly snobbish and, paradoxically, under the impression that it isn't, and this underlies the humour in this fanciful geriatric romance, based on a real-life case of someone who had made his home on a forgotten, but ultimately valuable, plot of land.Hampstead is photographed very prettily. Diane Keaton has a little more substance than in her last couple of outings, and Brendan Gleeson does comedy as well as he ever has: he doesn't get too much opportunity for comedy usually, which is a shame.Jason Watkins, as usual, steals every scene he is in.Real life, I suspect, had little in the way of romance accompanying the legal issues whereas the fate of the two ill-matched lovers is the raisin d'etre for the movie. And that's fine. The resolution is a bit too glib but, otherwise, this is very gentle and likeable.

Ian I love Diane Keaton and I love Brendan Gleeson so I really wanted to love this. It's sort of ok.It tries to be a kind of Notting Hill RomCom but without the twists and funnies. There are stereotypes all over the place and a predictable plot and it drags a bit, particularly near the beginning.But it's an easy watch, mainly thanks to the two stars, but it would have been so much better with a better script. Admittedly it was based on true-life events but someone should tell the scriptwriter that true does not always equal interesting.

Figgy66-915-598470 23 June 2017 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester Tonight - Hampstead. Why do people find it so hard to reconcile themselves to the fact that it's OK to be different. This story takes us on a journey of burgeoning love between a widowed American and a man who deliberately chose to remove himself from society. Putting nothing into society, yet taking nothing out, he is persecuted for his lifestyle and when he is being threatened with eviction he finds support from an unexpected source....namely Emily, played the the wonderful Diane Keaton, who brings her flighty style to this put upon, widowed character. Almost forced into rebelling by Fiona, her busy body head of the tenants association neighbour, Emily discovers Donald Horner, a man who has been practising his lifestyle for 17 years, yet is facing eviction by the developers who want to utilise his plot of land. Based on a true story this film shows the unpleasant side of some people's characters and the nicer side of those who are drawn out from their shells. A feel good film which only had one uneasy moment for me, that was when Emily seemed to change her personality momentarily leading me to wonder where things were going. A good rainy Sunday afternoon film.