All Together

This touching, funny, and insightful film tells a winning story about seniors that manages to stay generally lighthearted without portraying the elders as merely cute old people. The wonderful cast meshes perfectly, playing five elderly friends in France who decide to throw in their lot together via cohabitation. While the initial idea is that they can look after one another while also celebrating a shared history, living under one roof naturally complicates relationships. Jane Fonda plays a former professor unable to keep her advancing cancer a secret from her husband (Pierre Richard), who is suffering from growing senility. Geraldine Chaplin is the discreet and practical wife of a lifelong social activist (Guy Bedos), and Claude Rich portrays an unrepentant womanizer who frequents prostitutes and has a veiled history with both Fonda and Chaplin's characters. Into this mix comes a German student (Daniel Brühl), who acts as a live-in assistant while also researching his employers for his thesis. Writer-director Stéphane Robelin deftly explores what life is like for this quintet who must learn to accept, support, and forgive each other in order to stay together. Recommended. (T. Keogh)