Last Love

One of the only reasons to watch this bleak melodrama is to witness 80-year-old master craftsman Michael Caine's performance as a cantankerous old coot. Set in Paris, the story revolves around lonely expat Matthew Morgan (Caine), a retired philosophy professor from Princeton still mourning the death of his beloved wife, Joan (Jane Alexander), three years earlier. Unable to speak much French, Morgan is assisted by free-spirited Pauline (Clémence Poésy), who is young enough to be his granddaughter (she teaches the cha-cha at a local dance school). Their unexpectedly tender (non-romantic) friendship infuriates Morgan's disapproving, disagreeable adult children--cynical Miles (Justin Kirk) and callous shopaholic Karen (Gillian Anderson)--who arrive from the United States after Morgan attempts suicide in his spacious Left Bank apartment. Adapted from the novel La Douceur Assassine by Francoise Dorner, Last Love is written and directed by German-born filmmaker Sandra Nettelbeck, who is foiled by her own weak, cliché-riddled, and confusing script, which feebly attempts to deal with the subjects of aging, parenting, and loss. Although Morgan reminds Pauline of her deceased father, there's no explanation as to why she should be so attracted to dyspeptic senior citizen Morgan, nor for the sudden shift in her affections to Morgan's embittered son. Michael Bertl's stunning, picture-postcard cinematography beautifully captures the City of Light, as well as the local countryside of Saint-Malo in Brittany, but this is a slowly-paced, depressing film that even Caine's considerable talent can't save. Optional, at best. (S. Granger)