My Old Lady

When Mathias turns up in Paris at the flat of his now deceased and very estranged father, he didn't expect to find Mathilde in the house. Mathilde is a 92 year old English teacher, who has been living in the flat with her daughter for many years and under an Idiosyncratic French law she can continue to do so legally. Mathias has sold everything to get here and he is now alone in a new city with two unwanted tenants and a boars head. He has too sort out his life, his flat and everything else and then the fun begins....

This film is quite simply FUN, that is FUN with capitals and with the inflection on the part where you smile and enjoy life for a little bit. Based on a well liked play, the film makers decided to move things around a bit for this feature. So if you have seen the play then the film is slightly different but in a good way. The film now has form and structure more fitting a film, with a little less pathos and a lot more laughs. The film is shot well and the clear digital framing is competent and the shallow depth allows characters to be our center of focus. This helps us to also pick the more gentle and clever visual jokes out from the overt ones also. Now this also helps Kline who is on fine form as the rather grumpy and obnoxious Mathias (or Jim to his friends of which I feel are few). He plays the role at the right meter, where sometimes he could be over or even a little stagey, here he is a delight and actually makes you not only care for him but his journey also.

Then we have Maggie Smith who is stunning in her role. She does look a gamely 90ish and this is very much due to her lack of make up or adornments but she also is warm and wickedly funny in her role. where it is rare to see her perform anything but superb, here we are safely assured she wont fail us and she doesn't. The power of her presence is that in every scene she is in, she is the heart and the soul of it. When she laughs, we laugh and when she cries...you get it. So with the two hitting hard and looking like awards might be on their way, we have to look at Kristen Scott -Thomas. I am a fan of Scott -Thomas, let me not tell you that I loved her in her french films (Especially Tell no one and I loved you so long) but equally I loved her in her in The English Patient. Here her performance is once again measured and beautifully subtle. She has a softness and vulnerability that is literally jumping off the screen and in some peoples care it would have made for a more empty and shallow person. However in this actors arms it makes a person I felt for and wanted to side with.

So now comes the reason why the film only gets 8 out of a possible 10. I mean it has been a rave so far but here is the rub. The film is just a little to safe. Competently shot and produced. The actors are superb and the chemistry is very clear to see. The film is however solely a little bit too much fun and not enough of other things, those creative things we take and value so highly. It is just missing that little step more.