This was an amusing film - but nothing more than that really. In my humble opinion it fell short in a number of ways and missed out on several opportunities to play on the 'middle age/getting older/struggling-to-cope-with-the-modern-world' jokes. When it did do this however, it was very funny - but there were never really those laugh-out-loud moments that one would have hoped to find in a film with a cast of such combined considerable talent and experience. Unfortunately, there seemed to be this constant feeling that the four main actors involved (Emma Thompson, Pierce Brosnan) were holding back and could have done better - although it has to be said that the chemistry between all four (and most especially Thompson and Brosnan as ex-spouses) worked really well. However, the stunning locations of Paris and the French Riviera definitely help with taking your mind off the rather silly plot; I ignorantly didn't realize parts of France are so stunningly beautiful. Emma Thompson in particular does her very best with the weak material, proving, as if I didn't already know, that she is one of the most versatile and talented actresses around.
But, for me, the film's main surprise is Timothy Spall! He was the funniest guy in this comedy, in my opinion he really stole the show from Emma and Pierce together, he had some really funny jokes and his character is really peculiar and strange.. I loved it! Anyway, the script for this film seemed to 'fall between two stalls' as it were and was neither one thing or the other, resulting in a sort of grey hit-and-miss humour and genre. Perhaps it just tried too hard to be clever and witty, and it may have just been a simple case of 'less is more' - it certainly seemed to thrum along at a fair pace and complexity of plot.
Overall rating: 6 out of 10.
