Here Today. Quick Review.

Here is a Billy Crystal vanity project. He co-writes, directs and plays the lead, in this dramedy a veteran Late night comedy writer and early onset dementia patient. He develops an unlikely friendship with accidental lunch date Tiffany Haddish in this decidedly schmaltzy melodrama. The film is also a member of a strange collection of recent dementia movies. It follows both solid British indie Supernova and Anthony Hopkins Oscar win for The Father. The narrative has unnecessary cameos from some Crystals showbiz friends ( Sharon Stone and Kevin Kline among them. Proceedings have the general sense of being written by a Hollywood insider, who will claim his insights are a lot smarter than they are. That said it gets a decent amount of mileage out of this surprisingly solid chemistry between its two leads. Beyond the vanity of its creation, the narrative’s heart is certainly in the right place. Unfortunately, it’s also the kind of sleepily middlebrow inoffensiveness that is destined to headline senior citizen film clubs from now until the end of time. It’s not awful in this respect. There are worse things that viewers could be showing their granny’s. Critically it doesn’t offer anything new or interesting in a subgenre overstaffed with material primarily appealing to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel crowd. Crystals pre-existing fans might get something out of it. Otherwise, the film will be discovered and then promptly forgotten by the over 60 crowds. This will happen as they sip their complimentary cups of tea and demolish whatever biscuit selection has been assembled for them.
5/10