My Old Lady

2014 "He's in the will. She's in the way."
6.4| 1h47m| PG-13| en
Details

Mathias Gold is a down-on-his-luck New Yorker who inherits a Parisian apartment from his estranged father. But when he arrives in France to sell the vast domicile, he's shocked to discover a live-in tenant who is not prepared to budge. His apartment is a viager—an ancient French real estate system with complex rules pertaining to its resale—and the feisty Englishwoman Mathilde Girard, who has lived in the apartment with her daughter Chloé for many years, can by contract collect monthly payments from Mathias until her death.

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Reviews

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Beanbioca As Good As It Gets
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Prismark10 I watched My Old Lady to experience the work of feted American playwright Israel Horovitz, who also directed this film.Kevin Kline claimed he took a role in this film because it could be the last time he plays a romantic lead.Kline plays Mathias Gold, down on his luck, he arrives in Paris to claim an inheritance that his father left him. It is an apartment which he hopes to sell to a developer and profit by it.To his chagrin he finds that the apartment has a tenant living in it. An old lady called Mathilde Girard (Maggie Smith) sold the apartment some years ago to her father in a system known in France called the viager. Mathilde lives in the apartment until her death and she receives 2400 Euros a month. She has lived to a ripe old age.Mathias is angry and bitter, he is penniless and needs to find money to pay the old lady while he schemes to find a way out of his predicament. He stays with Mathilde in the apartment which upsets her daughter Chloe (Kristin Scott Thomas.)This is a gentle comedy drama, almost bittersweet that relies on some eccentric locals and hidden family secrets which unites the main three characters as it becomes more of a love story. However it all felt a bit predictable and small scale despite the nice Parisian locations.
richard-fieldhouse Many reviewers here seem to have gone to this film led to expect a comedy. But this is about as funny as The Seagull which Chekhov himself imagined was a comedy when he was asked for a description after he'd written it. But that should not matter for this film any more than it does for The Seagull, because the film has a genuine original story, and world-weary, damaged, but unquestionably involving characters.The story is of a bitter, three-times divorced, and more or less bankrupt American, Mathias Gold, who is left a Paris apartment in his father's will. He arrives in Paris obsessed with turning the central and elegant, but neglected property into huge amounts of cash as fast as possible, only to find that it is occupied by the old lady of the title and her daughter and that they hold it in form of life tenancy that Gold finds deeply frustrating.Kevin Kline plays Gold with a sympathy that's unexpected for those of us who know him for rather frenetic parts like that in A Fish Called Wanda. But, not for the first time, it's Maggie Smith who steals the show as the tenant, still quintessentially English, despite living most of her life in France. Likewise, Kristin Scott Thomas is so perfect for her role as the daughter that you feel the film could hardly have been possible without this pairing to play out the deeply complex mother - daughter relationship.The film has flaws and indulges itself a little at times, especially with the rather unnecessary opera singer, but it is, on the whole, nearly perfect. Not to be missed.
jackie-85977 A truly terrific film, with great acting from Kline, Smith and Scott Thomas. It tugs at the heartstrings many times as Kline's character's past is revealed in conversations both sharp and gentle with his new French connections. The three main characters are rounded and deep and sympathetic, even when you know they're wrong. Plus there are some really funny moments and a wonderful ending.
trifolium-180-410756 All the whiny-baby stuff from both 'young' main characters is just silly. Its the kind of stuff you might expect from a 20 year old complaining about their bad treatment as a child, not people in their 50's and 60's. Anyone watching this movie who actually had a bad childhood, and has actually 'grown up' would be taken aback and hardly empathetic to this self-centered pity-party. Sometimes in familial relationships, some things are better left unsaid. I found that the way both 'young' characters punish the 'old' character in an effort to pry decades old unpleasant facts from her was disgusting.(I know what I'm talking about... I did have a bad childhood... and not on Park avenue.)