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Review: 'I'll See You in My Dreams'

 
Blythe Danner, in a fine performance, and Martin Starr find themselves as kindred spirits in the film I’ll See You in My Dreams.
Blythe Danner, in a fine performance, and Martin Starr find themselves as kindred spirits in the film I’ll See You in My Dreams.
Published May 26, 2015

I'll See You in My Dreams (PG-13) (92 min.) — Why has it taken Blythe Danner so long to get a movie role this good? At 72, after a career mostly spent on stage, television and the sidelines, Danner is an immediate awards contender, thanks to director and co-writer Brett Haley recognizing rich potential in the lives of older women, and certainly her performance.

Danner plays Carol Petersen, a 20-year widow choosing to keep her home alone, rather than joining her small gaggle of friends at a Sun City Center-style retirement community. Haley establishes her condition with small touches, everyday activities when Danner subtly conveys a sense of something or someone missing. When her loving companion passes away, her face alone is enough devastation, and Haley lets it do the work.

Carol's approaching depression is interrupted by her pool cleaner Lloyd (Martin Starr), a sensitive dropout living with his mother — maybe the reason he senses a kindred lonely spirit. Their relationship will remain platonic, yet laced with romantic tension. They need each other as sounding boards not lovers, although Lloyd appears to need a bit more. It's a fascinating friendship, with actors given room for patient, quiet moments.

Their pensive camaraderie is interrupted by Bill, a well-off widower played by Sam Elliott, whose virility remains intact, along with his sexy, graveled baritone. Carol is flustered at first, warming up eventually at the urging of her friends Rona (Mary Kay Place), Georgina (June Squibb) and Sally (Rhea Perlman). Neither of these dynamics are as emotionally rewarding to viewers as Carol and Lloyd's but they set up amusing late-in-life fantasies of sex and drugs while slowing your roll.

Danner's real life, particularly the death of her husband, filmmaker Bruce Paltrow, gently informs the film, not only in photographs representing Carol's husband but Lloyd introducing Carol to karaoke. Paltrow's final movie was 2000's Duets, set on the karaoke club circuit, so this feels like a tribute capped by Carol's sweet rendition of Cry Me a River. Like much of Haley's movie, it's hokey but effective.

I'll See You in My Dreams is a disarming romantic dramedy, constructed from "geezer flick" cliches, to be sure, yet lifted to another level by the performances, top-to-bottom. B+ (Tampa Theatre and AMC Woodlands Square 20 in Oldsmar)

Steve Persall, Times movie critic