Paul Evans New Yorker Matthias arrives in Paris to inherit a valuable apartment, and having money worries he thought it would be a quick fix to his problems. The trouble is he also inherited a tenant and her daughter, Mathilde and Chloe. The trouble is under French law, he's legally obliged to let her live there and pay her a pension, en viager. Any attempt to evict her or sell the property would result in legal action.This is a beautiful film, it's funny, poignant, moving, and at times frustrating when you consider things from the point of​ view of Matthias. The three leads are fantastic, Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, and of course the show stealing Maggie Smith. Matthias ends up in some fairly dark places throughout the film, Kline does a great job of convincing the viewer that Matthias has had a tough life. Some of the laughs are brilliant.Beautiful scenery, Paris is a glorious City, and if you've been you can't help but be in love with what you see. It's a magical place, and I think the film manages to show that.Some may find it slow, but if you enjoy a character study, you'll love this one 8/10

areatw I wasn't expecting much from this film but I was pleasantly surprised. 'My Old Lady' is a well-written, steady drama with a very simple storyline, but that's all that is needed.The relationship between the characters is what the film is all about and Maggie Smith and Kevin Kline were two perfect choices for the main characters. The humour is subtle but there's no doubt that this is a comedy-drama film and Maggie Smith is particularly funny.Sometimes less is more and 'My Old Lady' is certainly a testament to that. A very simple, slow film but just as effective as the more complicated, fast-paced dramas out there.

mark.waltz A beautiful house in Paris is the setting for this troublesome drama where the presence of a little old lady (Maggie Smith at her most passive/aggressive gentleness) turns the new owner's (Kevin Kline) world upside down. He inherited the house from his late father and discovers much to his confusion that as the owner, he must pay rent to Smith and her rather serious daughter, Kristin Scott Thomas, who has enough troubles of her own to add him to her list of problems. Smith, it is quickly revealed, was an acquaintance of her father's, and as the lines of communication open between the three, more facts are revealed that turn Kline back to the bottle, break up Scott's own relationship with a married man, and reveal secrets that are heartbreaking and often shocking.You can never go wrong with any movie that stars the now legendary Smith, the British Katharine Hepburn, whose tenacity to continue working has made her beloved. This isn't a Jean Brodie Maggie Smith, nor a Dora Charles Maggie Smith of "Murder By Death", and she is as far from her Lady Violet Crawley as she is from Little Lord Fauntleroy. A character of gentle breeding and much class, she teaches English to Europeans of other cultures living in Paris, and in one scene, must explain to one of her pupils of the very sexually explicit meaning of the book they are reading. There is no shock on her face, just minor amusement, and even when she confronts Kline with his return to the bottle, it is with much tenderness and concern. It turns out she knows more information as to why he drinks, and when Kline shares his most shocking secret with her, it is written on her face ever so briefly that her whole world is shattered because of it. The bond with Scott grows too, and they all learn that underneath their initial distrust of each other, they are now bonded forever.This takes much patience to get into, but the three stars do their best to help the viewer maintain intentions. It is a gentle movie, almost nurturing in a way, and leaves the viewer with a very important lesson of how the generations create gaps simply because they unwillingly refuse to understand the older or younger ones. As old Rose said in "Titanic", "A woman's heart carries many secrets", and in the case of Smith's Mathilde Girard, she has more than her alleged 90 years can hold. The three give brilliant performances, almost quiet to the point where it seems like they are not at all acting. It's one of those sleeper movies that you'll have to sleep on to really be affected by it and one where your own relationships with older relatives, especially parents, will be forced out of whatever hiding spot they hold in your soul.

rockhurstobrecht The hero, played by Kevin Kline, appears to be an immature 57 year old obsessed with money. He has inherited an apartment in Paris but can't convert it to cash because an elderly lady, played by Maggie Smith, has a lifetime lease.Spouse and I agreed that the script was poor and the hero thoroughly unlikable. I was ready to stop watching when he grabbed money from another man's wallet. The clincher was his righteous moralizing to a woman (the old lady's daughter) who was having an affair with a married man.Was hoping for something with the kind of witty sparkle that Maggie Smith provides in her Downton Abbey role. Instead, just a flat story with little going for it but the beautiful Paris setting.