Fred (Christopher Plummer) recently lost his wife in New Orleans. He's a bitter old man alone after a life of being unhappily married. His intrusive daughter Lydia (Marcia Gay Harden) moves him into a small apartment. She has a money grubbing creep for a husband, Jack (Chris Noth) and a downtrodden teenage son. Fred's new neighbor is the irreverent liar Elsa (Shirley MacLaine). She dreams of being Anita Ekberg in Marcello Mastroianni's La Dolce Vita.
This movie puts me off almost immediately with Jack taking the cabbie's change. He's an annoying jerk and not in a fun way. It would work if I like Elsa but I find her just as annoying. It's trying to make her irreverence as fun but it's all so self-serving. I do like Fred. As for the coupling, I'm willing to root for them if only to improve Elsa. At last, I don't think his effect on her is quite as powerful. That perfectly nice waiter will have to pay for their dine and dash.
This movie puts me off almost immediately with Jack taking the cabbie's change. He's an annoying jerk and not in a fun way. It would work if I like Elsa but I find her just as annoying. It's trying to make her irreverence as fun but it's all so self-serving. I do like Fred. As for the coupling, I'm willing to root for them if only to improve Elsa. At last, I don't think his effect on her is quite as powerful. That perfectly nice waiter will have to pay for their dine and dash.