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My Old Lady has the special distinction of being a film that you can tell is based on a play. It happens more often than not when the stage breeds the source material. You can hear it every word. The cadence is rhythmic as the banter flies back and forth on beat.
It’s understood why plays are written as richly as they rely so heavily on the spoken word to tell the story. I always get crappy seats so you must communicate to me sitting in up in balcony/ether. It is not much of a visual medium. But to translate that onto film can cause stylized performances that don’t read as well up close. I find that the performances, when not handled properly, can become stilted with a touch of the realism exiting stage left.
Examples of it working out: Death and the Maiden, Driving Miss Daisy, August: Osage County, Bug.
Examples of it not working so good: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tape, The Crucible.
This is all a roundabout way of me saying that in My Old Lady Kevin Kline is not very good. I adore the man and usually enjoy his work but in this film, under the direction of the play’s author Isreal Horovitz, Kline gives a stiff performance. You can tell he’s acting, reciting lines and putting on faces. This is even more exasperated as he plays next to Kristin Scott Thomas and the wondrous Maggie Smith- both whom do not struggle with the dialogue. It’s the first time I’ve seen Kline have such trouble and it’s depressing because you get the sense that he thinks he’s nailing it. Nominations are sure to follow. I don’t think as much.
It’s a sad affair for the viewer as the story has some potential. Kline as a deep-down on his luck loser who inherits an apartment in Paris once his estranged father dies. He finds an elderly Smith awaiting him and discovers she comes with the apartment which is part of a “viager” arrangement where the former owner of the apartment lives there, receiving rent , until they die. So Kline’s Mathias has inherited a very unique situation and he’s not too pleased.
The plot has some nice reveals and there is one good scene with Kline emoting some troubled past regarding his mother but there is too much posturing throughout the rest of the film. The idea of forgiving and understanding flaws of ones you love is ultimately overshadowed by some overdone romance as the movie devolves into a Hollywood style love affair. The stretch is too thin and makes what good is found easy to forget.