Based on a play by the film’s writer/director, My Old Lady follows Mathias (Kevin Kline), a penniless and depressed New Yorker, who’s just inherited his father’s beautiful Parisian apartment, or so he thinks: when he arrives he discovers it is inhabited by 90-year-old Madame Girard (Maggie Smith) under a viager contract, meaning that until the old woman dies, he has to pay her a month sum, an old-fashioned system only known to France. Drama and comedy ensues as the odd couple temporarily reside together, along with Girard’s middle-aged daughter Chloé (Kristen Scott Thomas).
About a third of the way into the film, more about the apartment is revealed along with Madame Girard’s history, forcing the protagonists to come to terms with their pasts and decide how to best move forward. Once this shift occurs, the film swiftly transitions from carrying the light-hearted charm of the old lady to covering some serious personal struggles that the characters face. While the film is about middle-aged and elderly people, the primary topic is coming to terms with resentment toward parents, as each of the characters has lived with angst over all the pain that their parents thrust upon them.
While it certainly will not be the most moving drama of the year, My Old Lady connects with audiences easily by dissecting real and authentic familial issues.
It’s clear from the film’s setup that this is closely based on a play. There are a handful of added scenes that take place outside of the apartment, but even a casual observer won’t find it hard to notice that all of the key dramatic points happen within the confines of the French flat. While the painful situations that the characters have faced feel authentic, the unraveling takes a little longer than what would be best fit, both in screen time (the film clocks in just shy of 2 hours) and in movie time (you’d think that the characters would have faced these demons before reaching their fifties). This is a case where most of the dramatic dialogue between the three protagonists play a little over timed and start to feel redundant. That is not to say that each actors don’t work well with the material. Kline is the focal character, and while some of the outrages feel melodramatic (likely better suited for the stage), he still feels comfortable within the role. Maggie Smith starts out as mere comic relief, but as the story goes on her character carries more dramatic intrigue than actual humor. And Kristen Scott Thomas, who has given a number of terrific performances albeit not in widely-seen commercial films, carries a fragile performance with grace and rich emotion.
While it certainly will not be the most moving drama of the year, My Old Lady connects with audiences easily by dissecting real and authentic familial issues. It will especially carry weight among older audiences, who will lavish at Maggie Smith’s fun yet balanced performance. How the film plays at Toronto Film Festival will determine if the performances are viewed as Oscar prospects, but personally I don’t see this film going that route. Regardless, the film is full of charm and fulfills what audiences will expect from the premise.
