LATE BLOOMERS/ TROIS FOIS 20 ANS

France/UK/Belgium, 2010, 95 minutes, Colour
Isabella Rossellini, William Hurt, Doreen Mentle, Kate Ashfield, Aiden McArdle?, Luke Tredaway, Leslie Phillips, Hugo Spear, Joanna Lumley, Simon Callow, Nicholas Farrell.
Directed by Julie Gavras.

An unfortunate title despite the references to flowers and plants because many of us, including the stars of the film, come from the day when people wore those rather voluminous undergarments. Actually, that’s the kind of joke that would be at home in this rather old-fashioned comedy.

Old is the operative word.

Mary (Isabella Rosselini resembling her mother, Ingrid Bergman, even more than before) is approaching the big 6-0. She has memory lapses, is physically out of condition and starts to buy house phones and baths with handles, anticipating old age. Her successful architect husband, Adam (William Hurt) is commissioned to design state of the art future homes for elderly residents. He is annoyed and refuses to acknowledge Mary’s fads but decides to work with a young group of architects designing a modern museum (airports of the 1980s were his former specialty). He even affects a leather jacket to work with them.

Adam and Mary have three adult children who decide to do something about all this, especially as they see their parents drifting apart.

Also around are Doreen Mantle, excellent as Mary’s elegant but wisecracking mother, Simon Callow as Adam’s trendy boss though replete with artificial knee and hip, pacemaker, hearing aids..., and Joanna Lumley as an activist charity benefactor with her squad of militant ageing ‘grey leopards’.

Quite contrived, dialogue often clunky and a lot of it rather silly. But, probably those at the big 6-0 plus or minus may well enjoy it, trying to avoid seeing it as a mirror – as might their 30 something children who will recognise plenty of the images up there on the screen.

1. The audience appeal? Older audiences? Middle-aged audiences? Concern about ageing parents?

2. The humour of the film? The serious aspects? The traditional comic film-making? The international emphasis? The European Union – and Norah’s tribute at her funeral?

3. The British settings, London? Architectural offices? Hospitals? Charity organisations? Homes? The realism of the setting? The contrivances, even the clunkiness of the screenplay? The jaunty musical score? The strong cast?

4. The opening, the award to Adam? Mary waiting? The children looking? Norah and her observations? Mary and her diplomacy? Adam and his accepting the honour?

5. Mary, the memory lapses, waking up, her puzzling? Adam not noticing? Her going to the doctor? The advice for exercise? Charlotte and her intrusions? The swimming and the aerobics, Mary being exhausted? Peter and his thoughtfulness, the drinking machine? His offer, noticing her in the club? Charlotte and her urging Mary to do charity work?

6. Adam, his work, reputation, designing airports, thirty years of achievement? The discussions with Richard? Richard wanting him to design homes for the elderly? His speech about the elderly – with the rather callow touch? His concern about Maya and Adam? The nature of the firm, Francis and his comments? The decision of the group to go upstairs, to design the museum, Maya and the initiative, the other workers? Overtime?

7. Mary, her concern about becoming sixty, not wanting to be cared for, caring for others, the ex-teacher? Going to the charity and being shown around by the pompous girl with the ponytail, her walking out? Setting up her own charity, the office, paying the staff? Her bringing gadgets into the home, the phone, the bath, the various rungs? Adam and his not being impressed, wanting to get rid of them?

8. Adam, at work, being with the young, rediscovering his youth, the leather coat? The alienation from Mary?

9. Mary, alienation from Adam, her going to the club, the encounter with Peter, its effect on her?

10. The children, their personalities, their families? James and his being pompous? His suspicious of his father when Adam came with Maya asking for the money? His later visiting his father, discovering the truth? Wanting a parent strategy? Julia, her concern for her mother, her family? Her mother going to visit her at the hospital? Her mother asking for some kind of care? Benjamin, the youngest, the artist? His exhibition and his mother not liking it? Seeing Adam there?

11. Norah, her age, the speech at her funeral, her career, work, Europe, marriage, divorce? Her witticisms? Concealing her cancer, her collapse at the courts, Adam looking after her? Mary’s shock and grief? Her speech about her cancer? Dying, all in black for the funeral, Mary stuck in the lift, Adam waiting for her, their talk and reconciliation? Arriving at the cemetery? At the grave? The whole family joining Mary at the grave? The children asking where Adam’s and Mary’s grave was? Their lying on the grave? The joke about being on top of each other for ever?

12. Richard, his superficial attitudes, ageing, all the aids and hips etc that he had, an hour to take them off? His pressure on Richard for the homes?

13. Francis, friendship, knowing what was going on, talking frankly with Adam?

14. Charlotte, her age, chatter, charities? Lining up the Grey Panthers, at the house, giving advice to Adam about designing old people’s homes?

15. The group going to the courts, the bets on the sentences? Leo and his being the leader? At the funeral?

16. The young people, architectural dreams, ambitions, Maya and her being seductive with Adam? The reason?

17. The themes of ageing? The themes of youth? How interesting for those at the age of the central characters, for those at the age of the children?