Michael Caine in the city of lights
Mr Morgan's Last Love is one of those charming stories of age being given new life by an encounter with youth.
Mr Morgan’s Last Love
Written and directed by Sandra Nettelbeck
Based on the novel La douceur Assassine by Françoise Dorner
In cinemas November 28th
Mr Morgan’s Last Love is one of those charming stories of age being given new life by an encounter with youth. Mr Morgan (Michael Caine) is a retired American academic living in Paris. His wife has recently died and he is quietly submitting to the downward spiral leading to his own death.
Then he meets lively dance instructor Pauline (Clémence Poésy) who awakens a new interest in life as they engage in the small pleasures of Paris and the Atlantic coast.
The pair get close to a romantic attachment but it is mainly the two of them finding the family they feel they never had, he a child he can relate to and she a father figure. The relationship is neither sexual nor platonic but somewhere in between and, in the end, they change each other's life.
Michael Caine occasionally seems to be drifting into one of his previous roles but turns out a convincing performance despite being lumbered with a few yelling scenes, which are ill considered.
Clémence Poésy gives an upbeat, cheery performance reminiscent of Jean Seberg in Breathless.
In the second half of the film he is hospitalided and his two children fly in from America to take him back. They are confused by the relationship of the young girl and their father and life changes for them as well. As the children Gillian Anderson (Karen) and Justin Kirk (Miles) give accurate portrayals of older children and their relationship with a distant parent.
It could have been a soppy, maudlin film but the strength of the acting manages to make this a sensitive film about aging (it's going to appeal to an older age group) and companionship as well as the nature of families.
The real star of the film is Paris - its parks, its cafes, its streets and its lights.
John Daly-Peoples
Sat, 16 Nov 2013
Sat, 16 Nov 2013
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Michael Caine in the city of lights
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