Movie Review: My Old Lady

Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline) is shocked to find the apartment he inherited has a tenant he has to pay rent to. Also starring Dame Maggie Smith

There's no slowing down some actors. Dame Maggie Smith, 80-years-young, is still sharing her prodigious talent with us on screen.

After more than 50 years in the entertainment industry, you'd think she had earned the right to take her foot off the pedal, but no.

In My Old Lady, she plays Mathilde Girard, a 92-year-old woman who lives in a central city apartment in Paris with her daughter Chloe (Kristin Scott Thomas).

But this isn't any ordinary apartment. She doesn't own it and she only gets to live in it until she dies in a rather strange, but common in France, system known as "viager".

The ancient system allows for the resident to be paid "rent" while she lives in the house.

That is all fine for Madam Girard but not so good for Mathias Gold (Kevin Kline), who inherits the apartment from his father.

He journeys to Paris hoping to sell the apartment and solve all his financial worries.

And so a battle of wits begins between Mathias and the Girards over the apartment. But there is so much more to these three people than just an apartment.

Slowly Mathias begins to understand who Madam Girard was to his father and the life-long relationship they had.

All Mathias's feelings of abandonment return to the surface as he realises this was the woman who captured all of his father's attentions, leaving nothing for him.

This revelation also envelops Chloe, who is made to realise the power and damage inflicted by an extra-marital affair.

The second half of My Old Lady becomes an extremely emotional journey into the past for all three.

They must come to terms with what has happened and how it influenced the people they have become.

My Old Lady is very much a film for those who like drama and dialogue. It is about people and their experiences and how they make the best of it.

My Old Lady
(M), 107 minutes
Rating: 3/5 stars