Review of Elsa & Fred

Elsa & Fred (2014)
Older couple in New Orleans.
13 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This is a remake of a 2005 Argentinian movie of the same name in Spanish. I found it on Netflix streaming movies.

Shirley MacLaine is Elsa Hayes, a mid-70s widow living in a condo at 2801 St Charles Avenue in New Orleans. This is a single 3-story building with several condos about 700 to 800 square feet each. A freshly widowed 80-isn man, Christopher Plummer as Fred Barcroft, is moving into the adjacent condo. He seems to just be waiting for life to end, he spends lots of time just lying in his bed, with no interest in getting out of his living space.

Elsa, on the other hand, seems full of life and right away she greets Fred and tries to get him to do things. When his caregiver is absent and his kitchen faucet starts to spray water everywhere, in desperation he gets Elsa to help him and she does. It becomes the catalyst for her to take a greater interest in him.

This is a very nice movie, character studies of two people in the twilight time of their lives. They have issues with adult children, and she has to go to the dialysis clinic weekly. She doesn't seem to have much time left, but they begin to fall in love with each other.

It isn't the kind of movie that can attract decent audiences at theaters against mega-buck blockbusters, but it is a very nice smaller movie with some of the best actors of their times.
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