Support the Free Press | Facts matter. Truth matters. Journalism matters
Salt Lake City Weekly has been Utah's source of independent news and in-depth journalism since 1984. Donate today to ensure the legacy continues.
Film Search
My Old Lady
Comedy drama
An awkward tension develops when it feels like a movie is trying to give an audience what it thinks that audience wants, even if that’s not really what the movie’s about. Israel Horovitz directs and adapts his own stage play about Matthias Gold (Kevin Kline), who arrives in Paris from New York to sell the apartment bequeathed to him by his late estranged father, only to find that it’s still occupied by Mathilde (Maggie Smith) and her daughter, Chloë (Kristin Scott-Thomas), who still have some rights to the property under a unique French law. The story ultimately digs into thorny material about the damage done to children by parents “following their hearts,” and Smith has some terrific moments as a character rather different from her usual imperious dames. But Kline, for all his talents, aims for ingratiatingly hammy in a role that really needs someone willing to make Matthias angrier and harder to like. And the overall tone—in everything from the music to the scenes of people strolling along the Seine—keeps suggesting that it’s more of a light-hearted odd couple tale than a wrenching drama about haunted souls.
Director: Israel Horovitz
Cast: Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Dominique Pinon
Cast: Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Dominique Pinon
