Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) was a big Hollywood star in the forties and fifties. By the end of the seventies, following several failed marriages and treatment for breast cancer, she is appearing on stage in low key production in London. In her boarding house she meets a young struggling actor, Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), and they fall into a fast paced love affair that lasts several months before Grahame brings it to a close for reasons which she hides from Turner.
They are reunited under grimmer circumstances, as her illness hits home and she turns to Peter to give her life meaning again. She spends most of her remaining days in his family's home in Liverpool, a world where she feels safe. This could easily become an over sentimentalised tale, but script and direction, and the two leads, avoid any hint of mawkishness and give us a very human story of anger, frustration, laughter and, above all, love. This is a proper romance, and touches the heart of the viewer.
There's great support from Julie Walters and Kenneth Cranham as Peter's welcoming, caring parents, and Vanessa Redgrave's cameo as Grahame's sharp, cynical mother. But the screen is lit up by the performances of two great actors at different stages of their careers. Bening is as outstanding as ever, but Bell matches her every step, and their age-gap relationship is never less than entirely believable.
Highly recommended.
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