My Old Lady (2014)

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

When the writer and the whole cast draw a piece of art using all possible "redundancy" we inherit from our ancestors and no more with us at this era, we speechlessly feel inside the act.. BRAVO to all.. You are my idols.

Nice cinematography, Paris is a great setting, but a bad movie.The McGuffin is that a dead broke and useless Kline has inherited an interest from his father in a Paris Condo. Dad's mistress still lives there with her daughter who may or may not be his half sister. Entirely predictable complications ensue.The plot could and should have been done in an hour. Way too much dialog, not enough actually happens.There were some completely contrived scenes. The worst was where Kline, playing the son of a mother dead by suicide, shoots a stuffed boar's head in his bedroom. Then the other characters pretend to think that maybe he too has shot himself. Oh well, it was the only remotely exciting scene in the whole thing.Summary: Predictable, boring.

Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott-Thomas star with Maggie Smith in "My Old Lady" from 2014. It is based on a play by Israel Horowitz, and he also wrote the screenplay and directed.Kline plays Mathias Gold, who has has come to Paris to claim his inheritance from his father - a large Paris apartment with a garden, worth a fortune. That's good, since he is completely broke.He meets an elderly woman, Mathilde Girard, who lives in the apartment. She is 92 years old, and he learns that all he has inherited is a 2400 Euro a month debt. The apartment is a viager, which means that the apartment ownership ends at the death of the resident, who is paid 2400 Euros a month. At death, the property reverts to the original owner or their heir.Mathias, who hated his father to begin with, now really hates him, as all his money went to charity, and he's stuck with a valuable apartment he can't sell. Mathilde does let him stay there, but she takes his watch in payment. Worse yet, also living there is Mathilde's daughter Chloe (Kristin Scott-Thomas) who is furious with Mathias and wants him gone.Desperate for money, Mathias starts selling things from the apartment. As he's searching for items, he finds out some interesting and disturbing facts.This is a wonderful story for baby boomers, as they take stock and approach old age. It's also a hard look at the effect of one selfish act on two families. Filmed in Paris, the scenery is glorious.The situation turns into one of healing, while Mathias and Matilda realize how their lives have been similar. And they learn an important lesson: one either goes on and copes with life or they disintegrate.Everyone is excellent in this film, but Kevin Kline does an amazing job as an angry, bitter alcoholic. Maggie Smith is, as usual, wonderful, as is Kristen Scott Thomas, who is such versatile actress.I don't think young people would like this, I think it's for the older crowd. That's my crowd, and I loved it.

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.