Israel Horovitz's MY OLD LADY gives plum roles to three great actors in one sweet film

Say what you will about Israel Horovitz's feel-good rom-com-dramedy MY OLD LADY -- and I suspect that when the film opens this Friday, there will some very vociferous nay-sayers: The early ads for the film have taken to quoting critics such as yours truly, so clearly, they didn't have any famous "print" names to bandy about -- in this film, Mr. Horovitz's first major work as a director (he's best known as a playwright), he has brought together a well-nigh perfect cast and given it three plum roles to act in a tale that is almost sure to delight no end the forty-year-old-and beyond audience. The trials and tribulations going on here -- real estate and wills, parenting and parentage -- will be of no account to youngsters but prove catnip to most adults, particularly, I think, the senior crowd.

Horovitz, pictured at right, began this project using one of his plays, but as a movie director he has opened the play out so thoroughly and so well that anyone not knowing this guy's métier would never imagine that the tale began as a stage play. Horovitz has also set his contraption in Paris and made pretty good use of that fabulous place so that, visually, the movie is a constant treat. Even without the City of Light, with a cast this sterling -- which is used here spectacularly well -- you won't want to take your eyes off these marvelous performers for even a moment.

Of course, we're used to Maggie Smith (above), Kevin Kline (below) and Kristin Scott Thomas (further below), each offering first-class performances, but seldom are they given roles this plumb and then used in a manner both this obvious and this well. Watching the three play off each other is an absolute delight.

The story involves Mr. Kline as an American in Paris who has inherited from his estranged and now-dead father a rather large Parisian estate. What he finds when he arrives constitutes surprise after surprise after surprise.

Yet the plot is really rather simple, once the set-up is in place. But again, the performances breathe life and art into all they touch. The situation here is not an uncommon one where real estate in concerned. In fact, a good friend of mine found herself with a similar "cross to bear" some years back. But that was here in New York City. The French evidently have even more encompassing laws that protect the rights of those who find themselves in the situation occupied by the character played by Ms Smith.

In addition to this storied threesome, Horovitz (did he use a French casting director? I can find none credited on the IMDB) has cast some terrific French and Belgian actors -- including Dominique Pinon (below, left) as a local real estate agent, Noémie Lvovsky as the family doctor, and Stéphane De Groodt as the initial (and incorrect) love interest for Ms Scott Thomas -- all of whom shine.

As a film director Horovitz shows surprising promise late in his career. Scene after scene bubbles with enthusiasm and smarts, as he places his performers at precisely the right spot and then films them at their best. He is also subtler than I would have expected, and this is never better expressed than in his final scene. Here, in the far background, we catch sight of someone who remains in the far background and yet is so very present that we can rejoice in how beautifully and quietly the filmmaker has made perfect use of her, first to last.

OK: This film is a fairy tale of sorts. But fairy tales done well are among the very legitimate reasons so many of us still flock to cinema. These days, in particular (ISIS, anyone?).

From Cohen Media Group and running 104 lovely minutes, My Old Lady opens this Wednesday in New York (at the AMC Lincoln Square, Angelika, Bowtie Chelsea and Cinema 123) and  in Los Angeles (at The Landmark and the Arclight, Hollywood). Over the coming weeks it will open in cities across the country. You can find all currently scheduled playdates by clicking here and scrolling down a bit.

Here's a streaming "must" -- Sam Hoare's unusual "family" film, HAVING YOU

One of those don't-miss movies that the whole world will -- because small tales of love and life and learning, no matter how good they may be (and this one is very) find it almost impossible to make a dent in today's marketplace, given the amount of money that is spent selling cloddish blockbusters to sheep-like consumers -- HAVING YOU proves one of the most special films to arrive of late in that difficult-to-market category of rom-com drama.

The film also heralds the movie-making debut of an actor named Sam Hoare (at right), whom we shall certainly be hearing from again. Mr. Hoare has managed to tell a terrifically good story -- full of surprises, large and small, that never defy credibility -- and tell it so well that we latch on early and stay supremely focused on these several characters brought to lovely life by the excellent cast.

Suddenly one day, into the life of a struggling young man named Jack (Andrew Buchan, below)-- he's dealing with commitment issues; an angry, unloving father; and a job that barely earns his living -- comes Anna (Anna Friel, above), with a young boy in tow (a quiet and hugely appealing performance from Isaac Andrews), whom she says is Jack's offspring from a one-night-stand nearly a decade earlier.

Jack has just popped the question to his fiancee of too many years (the beautiful Romola Garai, below), who happens to have, as her doctor has put it, an "inhospitable womb," but who accepts Jack's proposal with tears and grace and lots of love. This is a particularly well-crafted and -acted scene -- so unlike the many dumb proposals we've viewed on-screen. Still... Now what?

What the filmmaker, who both wrote and directed Having You, does with this fraught situation is simply lovely -- there's not a misstep anywhere along the way. Via low-key but somehow intense and very real performances, Hoare keeps us rooting for every character, despite some of their wrong choices. On one level there does not seem to be a lot of conflict here, and yet the conflict is built into the situation and into the character of Jack, whose responsibility all this finally is.

Aside from the drama present, there's a good deal of humor, too, particu-larly from Jack's boss and best friend, Paul, given a nice spin by Steven Cree. The people here are good people, doing their best and generally succeeding. Yet the past will catch up with them and force them to face who they are and what they really want. The present, too, has some trauma in store, and together past and present unite to force change.

Having You is one of the most "dear" movies in a long while: the kind you want to protect and nurture, just as, I suspect the filmmaker and his cast wanted to do. They have succeeded so spectacularly -- but, yes, in a small, sweet way -- that their film becomes hands-down one of the least known success stories of last year. You can view it now via Netflix streaming and elsewhere.

Streaming possibility: Steph Green's "get well soon" family dramedy, RUN AND JUMP

My friend and occasional co-writer here, Lee Liberman, refers to certain films as "Hallmark cards" -- as in, "That was a little too Hallmark for me." I get what she means. Even in some of the films I've enjoyed -- often genre movies such as the GLBT-themed What Happens Next? and The Perfect Wedding -- I must admit that these do have their Hallmark aspect. This past week we streamed a movie I'd call the thinking person's Hallmark: RUN & JUMP, the first full-length film from Steph Green.

Ms Green -- shown at right, who earlier gave us the very charming and on-point short New Boy -- both directed and co-wrote (with Ailbhe Keogan) the movie, which tells of a period in which the father of the family (Edward MacLiam, below, center right) is recovering from a stroke he had at a very early age and is now coming home to stay with his wife (Maxine Peake, below, left, of the Brit mini-series Silk), son (Brendan Morris, below, center, left), daughter (Ciara Gallagher), at far right, being held) and a research doctor (Will Forte, below, right, doing the holding) whose grant money allows him to stay with the family (and provide them some much-needed financial aid) even as he daily videos dad's progress -- or lack of it.

Clearly, this is a fraught situation full of possibilities for drama, comedy, extra-curricular romance and much else. Ms Green generally makes the most of this without going overboard into farce or melodrama. What we think may happen often does -- but in a manner a bit different from what we initially imagine.

This is both the strength and weakness of the movie, for if the film does not go in for the heavy hand, it still makes everything a little too easy, as all falls too neatly, and finally, expectedly, into place. "All" would include the physical and mental attraction between wife and doctor, hubby's progress stroke-wise, and even the son's coming to terms with his being gay (and everyone else coming to terms with this, too).

Run & Jump is indeed a feel-good film and well-acted by all, especially Mr. Liam's dad (whose post-stroke feelings are now right on the surface) and Ms Peake's mum, a dervish of energy and appeal. Mr. Forte does a more than credible job as the doctor in the middle of it all, and the filmmaker manages to keep everything rolling for the slightly-longer-than-necessary 106 minutes.

Though not as easy a landing for all these characters as it might have been (imagine what would happen had Hollywood gotten hold of this story), it's still a bit easier than it is believable. It's Hallmark, all right, but for those who need a little edge to their "get well soon" and "ain't families grand" sentiment.

Run & Jump can be streamed now via Netlfix and elsewhere and is also available on DVD.

To stream or not to stream? Ash Christian's overlong family rom-com-dramedy PETUNIA

Can you say no to a movie with a cast this good? (That would include the likes of Christine Lahti, David Rasche, Thora Birch, Tobias Segal, and a number of other fine actors.) PETUNIA turns out to be the family name of the family members in this "family" film by Ash Christian (who earlier gave us the pretty good Fat Girls). Mr. Christian is working here with a much higher-end cast and a story full of characters who are simply too fey, cute and logorrheic to be tolerated. Still, because those actors give it their best shot, you may be willing to tune in a bit longer than you ordinarily would.

Because Mr. Christian, shown at left, both co-wrote (with Theresa Bennett) and directed the movie, we'll have to lay the honors (or whatever) at his feet. He and Ms Bennett have certainly created an oddball family of Petunias, all of whom, with the possible exception of the gay son Charlie (Mr. Segal) who has sworn off sex and become celibate (don't worry: this doesn't last long), are utter and supreme narcissists. This kind of family can be fun, if dialog and situation are clever enough, but here they just barely pass muster.

Mom (Ms Lahti, above, left) and Dad (Mr. Rasche, at right) fight and argue all the time but to little avail; daughter (Ms Birch, below) whose wedding begins the film, is marrying a man about whom she doesn't give two shits.

Meanwhile Charlie gets involved with a downstairs neighbor (Michael Urie, below, right) who seduces him from celibacy then turns out to be married (to a sad-eyed Brittany Snow, below, left) but is still up for the occasional fuck. Other relatives are problemed, as well, but fortunately we don't have time to learn much about them.

If all this bounced along with speed and style, we might go with it. (Or, conversely, if it took on enough seriousness to matter as something real, that might be nice, too.) Instead, too often it plods and then gets repetitive (especially those fighting parents) and is simply not that funny -- until we begin to question why we should waste more time with these people.

The movie's biggest saving grace is Mr. Segal, above, and below with Ms Lahti, whose character and performance bring enough energy and good will to the proceedings that we stick around. Barely.

Petunia, from Wolfe Releasing and running too long at 112 minutes, is available to stream now on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and probably elsewhere -- and is also on DVD.

Silvio Soldini's GARIBALDI'S LOVERS juggles a heap of stuff to get a look at modern-day Italy

The new movie from popular Italian master Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips, Agata and the Storm, Days and Clouds and Come Undone) finds the filmmaker in a more playful and magical mood than we've heretofore observed. GARIBAL-DI'S LOVERS -- rotten title, this! The original Italian (Il comandante e la cicogna) translates as The Commandant and the Stork, so maybe, as Garibaldi was indeed a fighter and military man, The Soldier and the Stork might have made better sense, while following the alliterative style of the original -- juggles so many themes, ideas and stories that you often fear for its (and your own) ability to keep them straight. It's a credit to the skill of Soldini that he not only does this but offers quite a bit of fun and thought in the process.

In this film, Signore Soldini (shown at left) gives us everything from a modern-day Italian family, struggling to get by, to sleazy lawyers and their clients, an artist trying to get the back pay owed her on a project, online bullying and pornography, talking statues, a ghost, and -- yes -- that stork (who proves quite the odd charmer).

The filmmaker begins with two of those statues, Garibaldi, from his high post above the crowd, to the more modern and on-the-ground Cazzaniga (I am guessing this is Gian Mario Cazzaniga, the still-living Socialist philosopher/politician/labor movement leader), who argue and quip. Garibaldi (and the film) looks at modern-day Italy and finds it grossly wanting -- "Maybe," the leader laments, "I should never have joined north and south" -- and we viewers see a few examples of exactly why.

Then we get to the actual story -- or stories: there are a lot of them -- which takes in all (and more) of what I mentioned above. These tales are certainly worthwhile, and the various actors who portray the characters are in fine form. The only trouble is that these maybe half dozen stories, even though they are all or mostly connected, are given such short shrift that they don't accrue much weight. Any one of them could have been used as the basis for an entire movie.

And yet, so generally clever is the writing (the excellent Marco Pettenello contributed to the screenplay) the give-and-take between the statues, the artist and her landlord, the lawyer and his client, the young man and the stork, and particularly the family's father and the ghost) that we tag along happily. If you're going to do a ghost these days, then it needs to offer something a little different, and this one certainly does (the ghost's description of "class" differences in heaven is hilarious!). Most of these stories add a twist to the expected (even the cyber-bullying/porn goes into areas that are a tad unusual).

The film does keep its pulse on Italy's own economic/social/political pulse, so if you've at all followed that country's situation over the past few years, you'll find a lot to think about (and fret over). Though the film itself, as an entertainment and a pretty good one, uses most of this as fodder for charm and laughter.

The excellent cast helps, too. Look for Alba Rohrwacher (above, right, and four photos up, and as usual, different enough to be nearly unrecognizable) as the artist; Giuseppe Battiston (two photos up) as the landlord; Valerio Mastandrea (at left, three photos up) as the put-upon dad; Claudia Gerini (three photos up) as a particularly gorgeous ghost; and Luca Zingaretti (above, left) as the shady lawyer. The kids (that's Luca Dirodi, making his film debut, below, with a special friend), as well as the rest of the supporting cast, are fine, too.

From Film Movement and running a healthy 108 minutes (though it might have been even longer to incorporate more ooomph into things), Garibaldi's Lovers hits the street on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday, January 21-- for rental and/or purchase.

Sweet dream of the fractured family made whole again: Josh Boone's STUCK IN LOVE -- plus a short Q&A with the filmmaker

If you come, as maybe more than half of us now do, from a family broken by divorce or separation, you may leave the new film STUCK IN LOVE as moved as was TrustMovies. He sat there in his screening room seat waiting for the tears to subside and his face and composure to return to something like normal before he felt comfortable enough to stand up go out and face the world. Why hadn't he brought a pair of sunglasses with him?!

He didn't feel particularly manipulated, either, as most movies of this kind manage to do. Yes, certain information is withheld from us until a point at which it registers more strongly. But because that information is also withheld from another key character in the film, the withholding makes sense on both a dramatic and a realistic level. This is just one of the smart moves that first-time filmmaker Josh Boone, shown at right, makes with his movie. There are plenty more. Stuck in Love is quite the auspicious debut. And gheesh, what fun it is! Though I was crying at the finale, I had laughed myself silly on a number of occasions throughout the film, which is wonderfully entertaining, superbly cast and acted, and written extremely well -- it's that rare film about writers (a whole family of 'em) in which you believe that the folks you're watching might actually have put intelligent and entertaining thoughts to paper (or computer).

It must have been a pleasure for the ensemble of actors to tackle roles this rich and bring them to such full life. The story concerns a mom (Jennifer Connelly, above, right) who has left dad (Greg Kinnear, above, left) and is now living with a younger hunk.

The character played Mr. Kinnear (who remains plenty hunky himself), though still deeply in love with his ex-wife, is now canoodling with a younger married woman (Kristin Bell), his rather short trysts with whom interrupt her jogging sessions. (The movie is quite realistic about sex used as a stopgap for pain and/or a substitute for other things we're not getting -- as well as simply something that's necessary and enjoyable.)

On the younger front, the family's daughter (Lily Collins, above, left), still raging mad at mom, refuses to get close to any boy and instead makes certain her partners understand that this is only a "sex" thing. When a persistent young man (Logan Lerman, above, right), puts his quietly intelligent moves on her, she is typically angry but also flummoxed.

Sis' younger brother (Nat Wolff, above, left) who has wisely not taken sides in the family dispute and is just coming into his own sexuality, is attracted to the girlfriend (Liana Liberato, above, right) of the school druggie/bully (Patrick Schwarzenegger), shown below and about to punch.

How all this plays out is full of intelligence, energy, charm and wit. Dad, sis and bro -- writers all -- are at various levels of their career, and it is fun to see how each one handles this. The movie is a rom-com, all right, but it proves much deeper and more expansive on a number of levels -- one of which includes, yes, Stephen King -- than most of its ilk.

I don't expect that you'll have as strong an emotional reaction to the film as did I. We each come to a movie carrying our own bag-gage, which reacts to and with the film in its own way. But if you are at all interested in things like love & trust, writers & writing, and the uses of sex, I'll be surprised if you do not find Stuck in Love very much worth your time, not to mention your laughter and tears.

The movie -- from Millennium Entertainment and running 96 minutes, opens its exclusive NYC run tomorrow, Friday, July 5, at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema. Oddly enough, it seems to be getting a wide release in both the Kansas City and the Orlando/
Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida, areas. Los Angeles? Maybe later. Anyway, catch it if you can -- or wait for the DVD/Blu-ray.

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TrustMovies met with filmmaker Josh Boone (shown below and further below) a week or so back but managed to leave his tape recorder next to his desktop at home. Much scribbling on note paper ensued as we spoke with this really "up," smart (but not smart-alecky) and charming young man.

Film school for Boone, he told us, meant growing up with a Super 8 and watching all the old movies he could manage to see, first on first VHS and then DVD. He's especially fond of The Criterion Collection (and who can blame him?).

Boone has always been attracted to writing and writers -- as his terrific use in the film of Stephen King and his work proves, along with the interesting way in which he has managed to endow each writer in his "movie family" with their own special subject and style.

Perhaps one of the biggest things in his young life occurred when his parents became born-again Christians during his adolescence, and he was forced to start hiding the books he was voraciously reading behind the covers ripped from "Christian" books then placed over Boone's preferred content.

All this was a strange but interesting part of the young man's life, and he says he would some day like to do a movie about religion. We can't wait.

TrustMovies remarked to Boone how amazing it seemed that he not only got this script filmed but that he himself, with no experience behind the camera, was allowed to direct it. He agreed, with a shrug and a chuckle. But the result more than bears out the trust placed in him by producer Judy Cairo (who earlier gave us the award-winning film Crazy Heart, Hysteria and the recent Erased).

When Boone's own parents later divorced (yes, this movie, as you might expect, comes from someplace personal), he explains that, like the brother in the film, he held no great anger toward either parent.

The filmmaker, now 34, tells us that while he may appear an overnight success, he has spent 10 years living in Los Angeles and "rolling that snowball up the hill," trying to get a film script produced.  "The key," he says, "is to write from your own personal experience." While we've heard that one before, we must admit results rarely come together this well.

As a small, independent film -- though cast just about perfectly with top professionals -- Stuck in Love will still have its work cut out for it, trying to reach the audience that, if it just can be tapped properly, surely exists for a movie this appealing and well-executed. We thank Mr Boone for his time and wish him -- and his film -- the very best.