Last night I wanted to watch a good movie, and I selected one, Last Love, that has
not yet been released in the US; thus, I had to pay a premium price to watch. Well it was well worth the money. I knew I could not go wrong with a Michael Caine movie that takes place in Paris. Besides Caine, it also stars Gillian Anderson, and Clémence Poésy.
Grief-stricken Matthew Morgan (Caine) mutters a quiet “damn” to himself as he wakes up to yet another morning without his late wife Joan. It’s been three years since she died, but the former philosophy professor struggles to will himself out of his Parisian flat to face the world. Matthew often feigns interest in lunch with those few local friends who speak English. He also considers taking up stamp collecting as a hobby. During different outings, he bumps into sweet, concerned dance instructor Pauline (Poésy) repeatedly on their shared bus route.
The two unlikely friends begin to hit it off and serve as plainly ideal father-daughter surrogates for each other, enjoying rowboats and hot dogs together. But then, reminded by Pauline of all he no longer has, Matthew attempts suicide, which lands him in the hospital and draws his two ungrateful kids, Miles (Justin Kirk) and Karen (Anderson), across the pond to air their grievances and assume the worst of his relationship with this young friend.
Well, that is all I am going to say about the plot. I think that Last Love is a good movie, but not a great one. I recommend it.