User Reviews

OK, Michael Caine is great in anything. He's one of the true actors with real talent who's still working. Clemency Poesy is good, but beside this film, the only other movies I saw her in were the Harry Potter movies, so it was a pleasant surprise that she can act as well as look pretty. The movie was fun, charming, rather predictable at times.

However, they ruined the last 15 minutes or so when - out of nowhere - in the hotel hallway, after leaving Miles' room, Pauline stop, turns, and runs into his arms and passionately kisses him. I was sitting there thinking "She's kissing him, why?" It's like there must have been a scene that was deleted in between when she left Michael Caine at the house and when she met Miles at the hotel. That part just seemed thoroughly disjointed. My biggest problem with the movie was Michael Caine committing suicide. He tells Miles to tell Pauline he has everything figured out, and then he's dead. He didn't have things figured out. People who commit suicide don't have things figured out, the problems in life overwhelm them, and that's why they kill themselves.

He told his son that he was never into marriage for the long-haul earlier in the movie. If Mr. Morgan really cared about Pauline, he should have stuck around for her, because if he was right about his son, he had to know the relationship between her and Miles would fall apart. When that happens, she'll have absolutely nobody. And did anybody else think Miles looked like a young Harry Connick, Jr.? The acting was great, but that last 15 minutes needed to be re-worked so it wasn't so...disappointing. I gave it a seven. Had they ended it right, I'd have given it a 9 or a 10.

It starts... wonderfully - Michael Caine with his usual magnetic pull,the female lead looking perfect for her character. It all seems to be heading in the right direction until... they talk. Michael Caine's character should have been simply - a British character. His accent is far to thick and too distinctive to be covered-over by any other accent. Throughout the film Michael isn't sure if he is an American or a Brit and and one point goes to Texas and back. The man is a legend, surely when filming him at the time, the director and screenplay writer (same person) should have been frowning at herself for making this icon of the screen take us on a world tour of English, ruining his amazing facial and body movements. A quick rewrite as a Brit, the character would have been perfect. Now... as for the female lead. Where to begin? Her accent is even more country-less. Is she French, English, American or even oddly Scots/Irish? I could hear all of these accents at some point in the film. Again, is the director deaf or just reading her script without actually hearing it? To set a film in such a prominent location as Paris, characters need to be absolutely established as to who they are and where they come from. The main female character is apparently French but she speaks 80% of the time with a British accent. You could argue the character **spoiler** has a father that was British and maybe she had grown up there? No... Michael Caine's character often corrects her English - so we have a girl with an English accent that can't actually speak basic English?? It turned me off. I am a voice artist/impressionist, anyone like me that is annoyed by bad accents, avoid this film. ;-) On to the overall plot: It gets messy. Other characters simply get in the way of the main purpose of the story. Gillian Anderson appears like she's in a flash-back to the X-Files... Serving no purpose in the room or as a character, talking, blah blah then a few serious looks is gone as soon as she arrived.

Generally, Michael Caine was too big for this film to handle. As another reviewer says: "Soap Opera" - I wholeheartedly agree. This could have been far, far better. The ending is irritating and does not conclude the characters in a satisfactory way at all.

Disappointed.

We were able to view this movie on Netflix streaming.

Set and filmed in Paris and surrounding areas, Michael Caine is 80- ish Matthew Morgan, retired Princeton professor living in Paris with his wife. As the movie begins we see that she is dying, we find out later she had cancer.

His wife had been the love of his life and now, just over three years later we see him going through the paces of everyday life but not really excited about anything. His Paris home and his country home, his wife's favorite, are indications that he is financially very well off.

Matthew's life gets a spark, or as they say in the movie "a crack in his world", to let some light in, in the person of 30-ish Clémence Poésy as Pauline. They have a strictly chance encounter on a city bus and something makes them attracted to each other. For Pauline it may be because he reminds her of her deceased father.

Nonetheless they become friends, they have lunch, he goes to the dance studio where she teaches. Then when something happens that draws Matthew's two adult children to Paris, they immediately suspect that Pauline is trying to get to Matthew's money.

The adult children are Gillian Anderson (of X Files) as Karen Morgan and Justin Kirk as bitter, angry Miles Morgan. There are some old issues never resolved and it takes up a good portion of the last half of the movie.

It moves a bit slowly most of the time and at almost two hours requires some patience, but overall I like the movie a lot. The resolution of everything is not what I would have expected but fits in a certain mystical way.

SPOILERS: Matthew tries, unsuccessfully, to die by sleeping pill overdose. Pauline is upset with him, the two adult children travel from the USA to be with him, and Miles especially is contentious towards Pauline. A number of things happen, various things are said, Matthew knew he was not a good father, he never wanted children but had them because his wife wanted them. In the end Pauline realizes that Miles was just a younger version of Matthew and the two of them kiss, passionately, Matthew sees this, he tells Miles, if you hurt her I will kill you, even though you are my son. In the end Matthew tells Miles to take care of her, Matthew ends his own life, when Miles is leaving he tells Pauline he will be back for her.

It is nice movie to watch but would be much better if main character did not kill himself, and what is worse in the second attempt. Also, end was slopped with Pauline getting heritage which really had no relevance with the story. Its like for the author happiness, success and justice is to be rich. On the other hand film is enjoyable, characters are normal persons, they care about each other and Paris is beautiful.

Sandra Nettlebeck wastes no time getting to the hard drama in the first scene of the movie and that's the way to give the audience a glimpse of what's to come, right off the bat. Michael Caine was the man to deliver that gripping attention grabber and he did it well. The movie is unpredictable but not shocking; despite your best efforts to see what's coming, you won't, but it's not for effect, I don't believe, it's just life, and director Nettlebeck does her best to make that point.

Mr. Morgan, played by Michael Caine, lost his wife; the movie introduces her to us via the images in his mind throughout the movie, while he struggles through what is no longer life, no longer that is till a chance encounter on a bus with the almost reincarnation of the dear departed. He meets Pauline, played by Clémence Poésie, again on the bus not long after and a perplexing relation ensues, one hard to define and it would be futile to try. What the aging retired professor of philosophy had not come to terms with before the passing of his wife, Pauline helps him find it eventually, him and his son Miles.

The story is sombre in many scenes, hopeful in others and always thoughtful thanks to nice writing and fine performer's use of body language when mere words can't be enough or just too much. That is what I liked most about this movie, beautifully simple as it should be. Emotions will be triggered if you have an ounce of sympathy or empathy, but it's not over the top. Michael Caine's performance is one I'll remember as long as I remember him.

The setting, Paris mid autumn, made me fall in love again with that city. The cinematography is perfect and it reveals a bit of why the city of sights, sound and forgivable sins is so attractive; it doesn't overshadow humans, it provides for them. Ending on another fine note with the song 'Not too Late' by Norah Jones sealed it for me. This is a serious movie for serious people, about life and I recommend it because of that for those who want to hug… you'll feel like hugging after this movie.

I saw this great film 4 times and would have watched more often if my local cinema would not have finished showing it after 3 weeks already. I loved the acting, the mood, the music, the scenes of Paris. I "fell in love" with Clémence Poésy (real name Guichard, Poésy is her mother), a star in 3 Harry Potters, In Bruges and much more. This film was shot between October and December 2011, so it took 2 years for a wide release. First they filmed in Paris, then St Malo (Mr Morgan has a summer house there), then the interiors in Brussels and Cologne, as it's mainly a German production, in English and a bit of French. Matthew Morgan is a retired American professor of philosophy, living alone in St.Germain, Paris, ever since his wife died 3 years, 2 months and a few days ago, when he meets the young Pauline, a modern dance teacher, on a bus and then again. Her father also died (the director dedicated this film to the memory of her own father who also died). She seems to be in search for a father figure and starts helping Matthew. We don't get much or anything to know about her own problems. Matthew tried to kill himself, and Pauline livens up his life. He had a friend whom he took to expensive dinners but when she moves out of Paris he became even more lonely and Pauline fills that gap nicely and becomes his last love but purely platonic. After his second suicide attempt she visits him in the hospital and here also his son and daughter arrive, thinking Pauine will be their new stepmother or is a bimbo. It turns out the relationship between father and his son and daughter is far from good. They quarrel about their mother who wanted to die in Paris but they feel he took her way from them. Miles Morgan ,the son, plays just one face here all the time, an angry one. Karen, the daughter, has also an angry role and quickly returns to the USA when there are family problems back home. Pauline is caught in between. The film then becomes more or less 2 stories in one, about her and Mr Morgan and Mr Morgan and his children. The ending (which of course I don't reveal here) leaves you wondering about a number of things, most of all how much time there was between the last scene and the penultimate one. In general there's some guessing to do here and gaps to fill by yourself, but that's fine as the best films always leave room for own interpretations. The acting is superb, by Micheal Caine (who might get an Oscar nomination) but mostly by Clémence Poésy who is a real kindhearted spirit, and the "crack in Mr Morgan's life, that lets the light in". Mr Morgan says she does not have a mean bone in her body and Miles thinks she lights up the room with her presence. So Pauline is a dance teacher. Right NOW Clémence Poésy stars on stage for 2 months in a theatre in Paris in a play called "I always dance" (a war story monologue) and the French reviews are mainly glorious, so it shows she has great acting talents. Educated bilingually she lives a lot in London and New York and is also a great fashion model, on the cover of many magazines. A great film about love and friendship and family ties, albeit melancholic and with not a lot to laugh, but of a sort I wish would never end and Paris looks lovely. The director manages to give us neither too much nor too little emotion and avoids big clichés and banalities. I can't wait for the DVD (January 2014).

well....you could use the very best or rather the most expensive ingredients and call it pate de foie gras. Sorry, I guess you would call it Last Love, but it would still be chopped liver, liverwurst or whatever. Before you start screaming that I simply have no taste consider what this movie would be had they not shot it in Paris, France but Paris, Texas and they some talented but lesser known actor than Michael Caine in the lead. As a result his last love would probably be an actress a bit less the lithesome waif than Clemence Poesy, but just as important such would not attract Gillian Anderson and Michelle Goddet for 10 or 12 minutes on the screen or a dozen or so others would not appear as everything from a rude passenger on a bus to a sardonic sandwich girl. Though they may be better known to French movie and TV viewers I truly believe that the presence of talents like Christelle Cornil with some 40 appearance credits here in IMDb A. would not be present doing 1 1/2 minutes as "Sandwich Girl #2" B. They make the whole immensely more palatable just as a wonderful estate bottled Beaujolais improves the luncheon ham sandwich "with the pickle on the side". Yes, blue wine with ham; I AM an American. The direction is not just a little abrupt; it sometimes almost loosens a tooth as we are at a restaurant having lun...no, getting into a boat and rowing... stop! getting into the car in a rainstorm while... a boyfriend? take Ms. Poesy back to.. Paris? St. Malo? who knows? they jump from one to another like they were Harlem and Central Park--a cab ride apart. In fact, they are 250 miles separate, but when a dead wife keeps popping up why can't a 30 year old child who feels oh, so deeply for Mr. Morgan fall intensely in love with his son after a half hour chat and a nap (completely chaste). Half hour? Who knows? She did, after all, leave the old man in St. Malo and take the Tesseract Taxi service to Paree... Oh, well, it was enjoyable enough. JUST enough to keep you from turning away. Now if I can only find some old fool to leave ME a little million dollar shack in France. I must go take a bus ride and find me one.

This movie is lushly filmed with a typically gorgeous Paris backdrop, interesting and beautiful camera work and an excellent cast. The somber beginning, as we start to get to know the central character, an elderly man with little to live for after the death of his adored wife, gives way to hope when he meets a young, vivacious Parisian and seems to kindle the desire to continue on. Is it love? No ..., not that kind of love, though there will be those who want something to spark between them. Instead we see two essentially lonely people finding someone else who can provide simple human companionship. The man's flaws begin to be explored with the arrival of his son and daughter after a failed suicide. The purpose of the daughter is beyond me as she barrels in, tries to take over the father's life, chain smokes cigarettes and bounds out just as quickly. We learn nothing from her character. The last third of the picture will drag completely as we continue to look in vain for some explanation for the characters actions. Though the banter between father and son seems on the way to enlightening us as to why they disdain each other so much, there really isn't enough here figure out how they, or we, are ever going to understand how they got to where they are. Mostly both characters engage in tedious whining about who owes who what for past insults. The real kicker is when the girl abruptly falls into the arms of the son when there has been absolutely no indication of any real attraction. The whole thing renders the ending utterly unbelievable and devoid of any real meaning. Story endings are difficult and whoever wrote this one failed miserably.

She lights up a room, and that is enough to keep an old man around a little bit longer. Sweet, dark and loving little drama set in beautiful picturesque France. The story is very nice, and picks up right away, like a snowball growing immediately after the roll has begun. There are real connections that you feel here as all of the actors are very good, and committed to their rolls. The music is soft, and never really more than background, and the overall sound is just basic, and focused on the story. Again though it is a nice story, and I did Enjoy what MR Morgans Last Love gave me as a tale of people needing the people that they need, and the loss for that unfilled need can leave such big holes as to never be filled. You take from it what you take, but I will recommend that you give it a try, and you will find your own take, on the longing, from the loss.