Likable at best, this overpraised/over-hyped comic number gets by on audience goodwill for its two geriatric leads and misplaced enthusiasm (make that chutzpah) from all-thumbs writer/director Josh Margolin, leaping from the ranks of production assistant on this debut. Ninety-something June Squibb, bubbe to layabout slacker Fred Hechinger (characterization applied like impasto on canvas), has just been scammed out of ten grand by father/son lowlifes (Malcolm MacDowell/Aidan Fiske), but determined to get it back with an assist from fellow senior Richard Roundtree and his motor-scooter. The film at its best when avoiding its plot and just hanging out with fading foggies (barely holding on to homes or in assisted living units), detailing the war against physical & mental decline. Touching, clear-eyed and funny. But Margolin turns cuddly cute at the mere thought of narrative action as well as making the middle generation (i.e. Squibb’s kids/Hechinger’s parents) dumbest of all. Squibb is fun to watch. What a late bloomer! B’way debut as a replacement in GYPSY when she was thirty; film debut at 63; Oscar nom’d at 86. But even she must yield to Roundtree, in his last role, stealing every moment he’s on-screen. Why was he so little used in his last decades? (Looking great, too.) To judge from this, the loss was considerable.
DOUBLE-BILL: To see what’s missing, David Lynch at his considerable best, most sympathetic and least quirky, dealing with some of the same issues is warm, witty and, at times, honestly wretched in THE STRAIGHT STORY/’99.
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