Retired school teacher Carol Peterson has been widowed 20 years but it isn't until her pet dog gets sick and has to be put down that she realizes how lonely she really is. True she has her three best girlfriends who she plays cards with and gossips when sipping countless glasses of chardonnay (with little visible effect) but she knows that is not enough. According to 'the girls' she needs to put herself back on the market even if that means subjecting herself to the indignities of speed dating with an assorted odd bunch of seniors.
Its actually when she is leaving this event that she is spotted in the parking lot by a flirtatious handsome gent who promptly asks her out lunch. Turns out that Sam is quite the catch and ticks enough of Carol's boxes to end up in bed with her too. It is something she tries in vain to keep a secret from her nosey friends they soon discover it and immediately start to rib.
Sam is however not the only new man in her life as she has a new pool boy. Well Lloyd is in his early 30's but to Carol who is very aware of their age difference, this young man who still lives at home with his parents and seems content to live just drift by him, he appears to be very young indeed. They do bond though through the chardonnay, and a rat that insists on living in Carol's house, and music. In fact he persuades Carol to take the mike at a karaoke night where she eloquently croons the song that this movie takes its title from.
Nothing quite works out as we think it may or that Carol thinks she wants but director and co-writer Brett Haley at least allows this delightful romantic dramedy to end on a kind of positive note.
The real delight of the movie is that Carol is played by the subliminal Blythe Danner with such a remarkable performance that it is something of a real mystery why she doesn't get to play the lead more often. She is obviously having a great deal of fun and she told the crowds at the Sundance Premiere that this was 'a role I have waited 50 years to play'. She handles the fine line of her inter-generational friendship with the dead-pan ambition-less would-be Poet so beautifully that it never seems predatory or the slightest bit uncomfortable or icky even.
Haley is to be commended for tackling a subject that is usually totally avoided in movies i.e. the need for seniors to enjoy a regular sex life. However despite the optimism that Carol suddenly shares when Bill starts courting her, there is still a very clear message that at this age one should never realistically raise expectations above a dog for a close loving relationship. That, and a weekly card game with your wise-cracking friends.
Sam Elliot played Bill, Martin Starr was young LLoyd, and the hilarious gaggle of 'girls' were Rhea Perlman, June Squibb and Mary Kay Place.
This is a rare treat : a grown up story for grown ups.
★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★
