Based on a novel by French writer Collete, who wrote Gigi, it's about Lea (Michelle Pfeiffer), a grand courtesan who grew rich and notorious as the public mistress of many wealthy men.
Now, in her later life, she relishes her comfort and her independence, but another old courtesan (Kathy Bates) asks Lea to groom her 20-year-old son Cheri (Rupert Friend), to be an artful lover and gallant gentleman so that he can catch a rich wife.
It is meant to be a clinical financial deal, except that Lea falls in love with Cheri. He is the young, passionate lover she never had, and the film is about how two people who could have been a perfect couple were it not for selfishness, pride and the desire for wealth.
The writing is incisive, the performances are elegant, and the movie is a view into what is now a lost world.
Old Dogs
Director Walt Becker specialises in comedies about middle-aged men who are having a hard time with everything, from hair loss to rebellious prostate glands. It began with Wild Hogs starring John Travolta, Tim Allen and Martin Lawrence as a bunch of ageing bikers on a last fling.
Travolta is back again in Old Dogs, but this time he is teamed up with Robin Williams, a partnership so odd that it is almost worth the price of a ticket to see who comes out on top. It features a comedy situation that only a Hollywood scriptwriter could think up, because these two men find themselves with a set of twins to deal with.
While I admit that it made me laugh out loud, that is just a knee-jerk reaction. This film is a juvenile, below-the-belt farce with no real emotional or comic energy. While it manufactures lots of raucous guffaws, you will have forgotten it before you have left the car park.
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