The Time of Their Lives

(3) comments

• 
  brankovranjkovicMarch 12, 2017Reply

  Pensioners Behaving Badly

  *** This review may contain spoilers ***

• 
  StootomlinMarch 16, 2017Reply

  Think of your Granny and her friend on a road trip. It’s sweet, sad and funny. Worth seeing.

  This is a really sweet film. It’s like the OAP version of Thelma and
  Louise.

  The film revolves around Helen and Pricilla, played by Joan and Pauline
  Collins.

  Helen is a narcissistic former film star, who was huge back in the
  1960’s, but since then she’s been forgotten, all after she fell apart,
  and disappeared from the public eye, some years ago. She hasn’t
  accepted the fact that it’s over for her, even though when we first
  meet her, she is being taken out for a trip from an old people’s home.

  Priscilla’s very Mumsie. She is just a likable person. Sadly, her
  husband treats her like crap, and she is living an albeit comfortable,
  yet miserable life. She accidentally gets caught up in the old people’s
  trip, and our story begins.

  There is also the small, yet memorable part of Alberto, played by
  Franco Nero. Alberto is an Italian artist who the girls stumble upon,
  he is kind, and affectionate, and he shows Priscilla just what she
  might be missing in life.

  The chemistry between Joan and Pauline Collins is great, they bounce
  off each other and each and every interaction feel natural, but what
  else would you expect from two women who have been acting for over 100
  years between them?

  There’s a lot of talk about how older actors, and especially older
  actresses, don’t get a lot of work anymore. Often because few good
  parts are written for them. Films like RED, The Best Exotic Marigold
  Hotel and the soon to be released Going in Style, should show studio
  execs that older actors still have something special to offer. No,
  scrap that, not ‘still have’, they have something that younger actors
  don’t have, decades of experience. Why would we waste it? It makes no
  sense.

  Back to our film.

  Our two friends travel to France to attend the funeral of the director
  who cast Helen in her first big film role. Along their journey, they
  discover a few things both about each other, and about themselves.
  There is a very serious undertone that runs through this film, it has a
  sadness, that comes with loss, a loss we all feel at some point in our
  lives. Yet, it still manages to laugh, at itself, at the situation it
  finds itself in, at life. I’ve always felt that this is the best way to
  deal with pain and adversity, so I appreciate the message that this
  film puts across.

  In the loosest sense, this is a road movie, and a charming one at that,
  with in fact very little time actually spent on the road, but it’s hard
  to describe it as much else. It’s a story of self-discovery, and
  although it may not be perfect, it’s well worth a watch.

• 
  Figgy66-915-598470March 21, 2017Reply

  Wooden and lacklustre

  21 March 2017 Film of Choice at The Plaza Dorchester this afternoon –
  The Time of Their Lives. Starring Joan Collins and Pauline Collins as
  Helen and Priscilla, two women who couldn’t be more different, they end
  up together on a bus on a day trip to the beach which culminates in
  them both ending up in France. Billed as a female buddy movie, this was
  a lot more mundane, these two characters were not really buddies, just
  two ageing women drawn together by the desperateness of their lives,
  one a Hollywood actress whose star is definitely on the wane, the other
  an unappreciated housewife haunted by memories of the past. What ensued
  should have been funnier, should have been more emotional but in
  reality the acting was wooden and slightly uncomfortable to watch. Take
  Joan Collins out of the equation and I felt I was watching a modern
  remake of Paulines Collins’ big hit Shirley Valentine. It was a
  pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours but that’s about it.