Michael Caine, Gillian Anderson & Clemence Posey in Last Love - Review

Sometimes I like to watch movies over a couple of days. Especially if I really like it. I don't want it to be over. You can never watch it again for the first time. I have found that this process brings out a mini-series quality to certain films. The characters get to live with you just a little bit longer.

It doesn't work for every movie and you can't do it in the theatres but it can enhance certain films that you watch at home. Just a little tid bit.

Some might say that that can give certain movies an advantage or disadvantage. I say, who the fuck cares? It's my movie watching experience. No one elses. And if it takes me nearly 2 weeks to watch Speilberg's Lincoln than so be it. Some nerve making a 150 minute historical extravaganza.

Last Love I watched in 2 parts. For what it's worth.

LAST LOVE - 2013 - ***
dir. Sandra Nettelbeck.
Michael Caine, Clemence Poesy, Gillian Anderson, Justin Kirk, Jane Alexander.

A film that moves casual and with a deliberate pace is like a bottle of red wine that you share leisurely with your best friend. In between the sips and the laughs and the hints of blackberry is life. Last Love is like that. It's a movie about what happens in between life's "big" moments. It is a reminder that we are not shaped by one or two big events. Life carves out a little bit of us everyday. We are malleable until the day we die.

It's been three years since Matthew Morgan (Michael Caine) lost his wife Joan (Jane Alexander). He has fallen into a routine, that's quotidian at best. His since of time relies on when then cleaning lady arrives at his Parisian flat or when the phone rings and he's late for another lunch. His lust for life has passed. He has lived in France for years and hasn't learned a word of French. He always relied on Joan. He always had things to do and always had a dinner date because he always had Joan. He has no one now.

That all changes when he meets the young and beautiful Pauline (Harry Potter's Clemence Poesy) on the bus. The two unlikely friends hit it off. Not in a weird way. In a father-daughter way. Her family has passed and his are in the states. A match made in France.

Gillian Anderson.

Pauline is a dance teacher and gets Matthew to come to her classes. They go out to fancy dinners and row boats and eat hot dogs. But all this is just too much for Matthew. He realizes, by spending time with Pauline, how much he misses his wife and attempts to take his own life.

When his son and daughter (a strong Justin Kirk and a splendidly selfish Gillian Anderson) come to visit Matthew in the hospital, family drama ensues.

There is by no means any reason that Michael Caine still needs to be doing movies. He has nothing to prove. He has done everything. Won 2 Oscars. Was in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. He even starred in the surprise summer hit Now You See Me. But I'm glad to see that he is still challenging himself in these small, intimate movies. He is brilliantly restrained as the grieving widower. There are some tender moments that only Caine could deliver. Check out the heartbreak in his eyes when Pauline gets a ride to town with a handsome stranger. What could have been a very creepy performance (think Peter O'Toole in Venus) is not in the hands of Michael Caine.

However, I was most delighted and impressed with Ms. Poesy. A beautiful actress who gives so much life to Pauline. When she's happy, every part of her is happy. Even her hair.

A pleasant score from Hans Zimmer and some very lush cinematography by Michael Bertl.

A sweet litle movie.

(3 stars *** out of 4 ****)