Review: My Old Lady

Septuagenarian Israel Horovitz adapts one of his own plays to make his feature film debut with My Old Lady, a light comedy that steers into Ibsen territory as the characters dredge up remembrances of grievances past.

Kevin Kline plays Mathias Gold, who travels to Paris to claim the two-story Paris apartment left to him by his deceased father. Broke and awash in debt, he plans to sell the place for a pretty penny to set himself up for a new start in life. Arcane French real-estate rules throw a spanner in the works - the apartment was purchased under the viager scheme, wherein the buyer acquires the property for a steal but must pay the owner a monthly stipend until the owner expires. Much to his bitter amusement, not only has Mathias inherited a debt but he's inherited the apartment's original tenant as well, a certain Madame Girard (Maggie Smith), who is in such fine fettle that she could live well beyond her 92 years.

Perhaps moved by his tale of woe ("How do you get to be 57 and eleven months and have nothing to show for it?") - three divorces, one for each of his unpublished novels; his bankruptcy; and the curse of being "born with a silver spoon in my back" - she agrees to let him stay at the apartment...for a small fee, she says, eyeing the watch his father bequeathed to him. For a short spell, the film follows Mathias as he scrounges around the apartment, stealing and selling pieces of furniture. He even pays a visit to Madame Girard's physician to inquire after the old lady's health. "You have made a terrible investment," the clearly entertained doctor informs him, Madame Girard is in top form. One wonders if this mordant deathwatch might be the basis for a Night Must Fall or Kind Hearts and Coronets type of black comedy / murder mystery.

Instead, My Old Lady reveals itself to be a chamber piece about the fractured relationship between parents and children. Secrets are revealed, scabs picked anew. Both Mathias and Chloe (Kristen Scott Thomas), Madame Girard's unmarried daughter, bemoan the unhappiness that has predominated their lives, each of them placing the blame on their respective parents. If you want to watch a child wither, then do nothing, Mathias rages to Madame Girard; do nothing and watch as the child turns itself inside out to be loved. Kline injects this monologue (and the many others with which he's tasked) with characteristic brio, though the spleneticism of the piece is derived more from his tone than from actual emotion.

Chloe, meanwhile, has her own self-esteem issues, conducting an affair with a married man, and observing, "I thought just having him in my life was worth it." Thomas brings her trademark class and brittle guardedness, lending a depth to an otherwise underwritten character. Smith brings the tart as only she can, and also delivers a miniature master class in precision timing as the layers of self-deception are shed.

My Old Lady is agreeable enough fare though its plotting is predictable and its themes well-worn. Horowitz's direction possesses a, shall we say, politesse that is measured rather than perfunctory.

My Old Lady

Directed by: Israel Horovitz

Written by: Israel Horovitz; adapted from his play

Starring: Kevin Kline, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Dominique Pinon, Stéphane Freiss, Noémie Lvovsky