Butler's Cinema Scene

Blythe Danner

“I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS” My rating: B

92 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

There’s no other way to put this…at age 72 Blythe Danner seems more beautiful, more luminous, and more talented than at any time in her life.

And “I’ll See You in My Dreams” is an ideal vehicle both for this terrific actress and for exploring issues of age.

Death is never far off in director Brett Haley’s dramedy (co-written with Marc Basch).  In the first scene septugenarian Carol Peterson (Danner) must put down her canine companion of 12 years. While the pooch was around she could always rely on its undivided devotion, but now this widow of 20 years is starting to feet mortality’s tug.

Oh, Carol has what looks like a fairly full life.  Money’s not a problem. She’s got a group of gal pals (Rhea Perlman, June Squibb, Mary Kay Place) with whom she shares bridge, golf and gossip (one of the film’s strong suits is its dialogue, which sounds like real people jabbing rather than the usual moviespeak).  Her friends would like Carol to move into the retirement community where they all live, but she relishes the independence — and perhaps the solitude — of the home she shared with her husband.

“I don’t like life all complicated,” she says. Funny how complications seem to find her.

Despite her misgivings, Carol senses that she’s in a retirement rut. That may be why she reluctantly allows herself to be talked into a round of geriatric speed dating, a hilarious/appalling experience that only convinces her that solitude is preferable to the the male pickings after 65.

Sam Elliott, Blythe Danner

Nevertheless, she finds herself with two new men in her life. First there’s the friendship she strikes up with Lloyd, the self-effacing thirtysomething guy who cleans her swimming pool.  New to town and lonely, Lloyd happily becomes the older woman’s drinking buddy and karaoke chaperone. He’s played by Martin Starr, who had the lead in last year’s GI/Muslim girl romance “Amira & Sam,”  and Starr is terrific — vulnerable, funny, and respectful.

“I’ll See You in My Dreams” gets genuinely romantic when Carol finds herself being wooed by a silver-haired hunk with tons of Texas charm and an ever-present (and always unlit) cigar. Bill (Sam Elliott) obviously has plenty of dough (his “fishing boat” is a small yacht) but he’s not found anyone to share it with (this may be the only truly implausible thing in the film…the guy’s such an obvious prize that he could be trolling for women half his age).

Bill — who’s half gentleman and half cocky teen — hates ruts and the expectation of a slow decline into inactivity. He’d prefer to raise a bit of hell while he still can.

And though she’s cautious, Carol can’t help wondering if perhaps life isn’t offering one last fling.

Everyone in the film is good, but Danner is little short of extraordinary. Pay less attention to what she says than to what her eyes and posture tell us she’s thinking.

No good parts for older women?  Not if this film is any indication.

| Robert W. Butler