Never Again

Romantic comedies involving couples over the age of forty are sufficiently rare that one would like to welcome this pairing of decidedly frumpy Jeffrey Tambor with the no-longer-young-but-still-radiant Jill Clayburgh. He's a lonely exterminator with a perpetually hangdog expression, and she's a divorcée who's hesitantly getting back into the dating game following her only daughter's departure for college. After an overly cute meeting they grow close, only to see their relationship threatened by insecurities and a succession of contrived, often embarrassing, situations. Apart from the age of the leads, Never Again follows exactly the trajectory one expects (down to an ending that's an especially silly twist on the An Affair to Remember formula), and writer-director Eric Schaeffer makes matters worse by adding on a thick overlay of heavy-handed quirkiness. Tambor and Clayburgh are attractive protagonists, but Schaeffer's blunt-force script and sledgehammer direction serve them poorly. Not a necessary purchase. (F. Swietek)