You think you have done an ok job with your life when suddenly, everybody you know angrily, impatiently informs you that you are not welcome, you cannot be trusted, you are no longer needed and you are a bit embarrassing.
The pain of that, the humiliation, the sense of helplessness, the grief and the regret can quite literally kill you. I have some experience in this, so I could relate.
Now, through some fluke -- or is it just enough wisdom to answer Opportunity? -- you recognize that your life has shifted, the old rules no longer apply and that you have choices you have not experienced since you were a very young person.
Do you scamper to pick up whatever shards of your life you can patch together, or do you take this last chance?
I have not been charmed by Dustin Hoffman like this since MIDNIGHT COWBOY, quite frankly. Emma Thompson is uncharacteristically passive, but even that performance is powerful, as it is a conscious choice to not resist this phenomenon that quite literally just sits down next to her and will not take no for an answer.
The sound track was awesome: evocative, but light, timeless but fresh like a dry, white wine.
Quite frankly, I had no idea London was so beautiful and bright.
I think James Brolin is a jerk and, therefore, perfectly cast in this film.
The nobility of a misguided person, dusting off the delusions of a rote life, making amends and moving on: it is a classic tale, on a humble scale.
For those of you who hated this film, wait until the disappointments and regrets of later years and view it again.
For those of you who think it an ill match, Thompson played opposite Hopkins, who shares the same birth year with Hoffman. Nobody objected then, so let it be now. Perhaps Thompson is too timeless and too wise for men her own age? Perhaps Hoffman is too full of life to be old?
