Our Souls at Night

I watched this movie in MAMI, year round program film screening. I had also got opportunity to interact with director of the film - Ritesh Batra. He is called as cinematic tinder of common man, because he brings romance into lives of characters that have faced struggle and challenges in life.

It is a beautiful story of old aged woman and man who were living alone for years after their spouses have died. They break silence and start sleeping over same bed only to escape loneliness. Both of them continue talking and gossiping about their past lives, happy moments as well as regrets. Their children have grown up and are living their own independent life. Film is an emotional drama, warmth in relationships, and shows sense of human life in dialogues. It explores psyche of old age through their responses to life circumstances. Film end up teaching many life lessons through these characters. Addie regrets that she has spent years thinking what people would be talking about her.

Film is adapted from the novel of same name by Kent Haruf, who died just few weeks after publishing his last novel.

It was a good film for sure. Simple and touching story. Easy to watch and very heartwarming. It also tries to avoid as many clichés as possible which was a nice refreshing surprise, as the story was nothing extraordinarily new. Robert Redford was very good and this performance is possibly his best of the past years. Really beautiful performance and a very natural and appealing character. Jane Fonda had the more challenging role and mastered it wonderfully. She had a lot of different facets that were captured in her performances. A lot of secrets are involved in that character and she handled that excellently. Matthias Schoenaerts was also memorable. The film however did have some little lengths. Also some characters like the one of Judy Greer or Phyllis Somerville appear and in the next second disappear again without any significant to the story. It is always nice to see Bruce Dern but also he was rather wasted. The score was fitting the mood of the film but a bit overused. The direction was very calm and concentrated on the two lead protagonists but sometimes failed to give the story some drive. Still very worth to see on a rainy Sunday.

This movie is a long way from Barefoot in the Park, made in 1967, when Robert Redford and Jane Fonda were both 30. Now 80 they play two regular folk, Addie and Louis, who live alone in a small town and decide to spend their nights together to ease their loneliness. As Fonda put it, nights are the worst. The two had only known each other as acquaintances. So, when Addie knocks on his door with the proposal that the two sleep together, without sex, Louis is totally confounded but not scandalized. What I found interesting is how these 1960's sex symbols seemed to fit into these roles so naturally. The movie is slow and it takes a while for the two to get into the groove of being sleeping partners; however, it does pick up when Fonda's grandson comes into their lives. These 80 year olds take on all the energy and dedication of first time parents. The townsfolk were standoffish when they first found out about them but Addie was not bothered about gossip. Louis also adjusted to it. So what happens to spoil this bliss? Without giving it away, both Addie and Louis have acquired some baggage with their own grown children. They are able to face their own lives with a certain wisdom and honesty. The fact that these two actors, Fonda and Redford, can come together and star in a movie that breaks stereotypes is a positive note. It is refreshing to see a movie that treats older people as a loving, energetic couple. Thumbs up!

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda are perfect for their lonely and flawed characters. What a sweet unfolding of two complex lives that crave connection and love. It begins simply with wanting to simply sleep through the night and then we get to know all the good and the hard parts of their lives and in the end it is about talking to each other.

There is a bit of all of us in these characters.

The source of interest was, for me, the presence in cast of Jane Fonda and Robert Redford as a sort of return to old cinema, more full of wisdom, serenity and real good job of actors, out of ambitions of blockbuster and a lot of special effects.

But the film proposes more than nice flavors of late time.

From the eccentric, only at the first sight, proposition of Addie, to the life of comunity, marriage crisis and death of child, relation with children, new chance and a call in night , confessions, memories, reactions of others, it is just a comfortable oasis , soft, precise in detail, proposing a sort of romance who is easy to be feel by a generation not so young but far to accept the fall of life.

A delicate poetry and admirable use of silent moments, good cinema and a rare delicacy serving the cause of a sort of friendship between two neighbors , not very familiar one with other, but discovering sparkles of life in gentle manner, returning to true love.

A film choosing its public with grace . And a beautiful story.