My Old Lady

My Old Lady (2014) is a French-British-American comedy drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Israel Horovitz adapted it from his own stage play, casting Maggie Smith, Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas in the three central roles. Runtime is 107 minutes.

Mathias Gold (Kline) is a broke New Yorker who inherits a spacious Parisian apartment from his long-estranged father. He flies to France expecting a quick sale to clear his debts. What he finds instead is a viager — a distinctly French property arrangement in which the elderly Mathilde Girard (Smith) has the legal right to remain in the apartment for the rest of her life while Mathias pays her monthly. Eviction is not an option. Mathilde's daughter Chloé (Scott Thomas), who has lived there for years, is not exactly pleased to meet him.

Horovitz builds the film around three people who have all made their accommodations with disappointment — and then puts them in one apartment and sees what breaks open. Smith is formidable: sharp, dry, precise. Kline plays a man who has run out of fresh starts but has to find one anyway. Quiet and chamber-sized, this is a film for anyone who finds a well-written conversation more interesting than a plot. Stream My Old Lady (2014) online on iFILM.