How About You... (2007)

Ellie Harris (Hayley Atwell) reluctantly returns to her sister Kate who is struggling financially with her retirement home Woodlane. Ellie is saving up to go on a trip with her friends. The home is losing staff and residents due to four particularly opinionated residents singer-dancer Georgia (Vanessa Redgrave), pianist Donald (Joss Ackland), sisters Hazel (Imelda Staunton) and Heather (Brenda Fricker). Ellie befriends lonely dying Alice and her death hits her hard. Ellie's mother has a stroke and Kate has to go to take care of her. While everyone is away, Ellie is left alone in charge with four grumpy residents.The early death of Alice is a mistake. She represents the heart of the movie. The story feels like it has to restart after her death. It takes awhile to recover the heart. The comedic turns from the four veteran actors feel clunky. Their emotional drama feels perfunctory. Alice has a great line and should die later on to jump-start the climax. These are great actors and they have some drama to play out. However it's all rather structured and unsurprising.

'How About You' is one of those "feel good" films from Ireland (just to let everybody know that we're not just a bunch of gloomy,depressed sods that like a good cry). Anthony Byrne directs a crackerjack cast of seasoned veterans,including Vanessa Redgrave as an over the hill actress (or so she claims),Joss Ackland as a retired judge who's chronic alcoholism brought his career crashing down early,and a cast of other fine actors & actresses playing the residents of a nursing home in the beautiful Irish countryside (filmed mostly in County Wicklow). The story concerns a young woman,who arrives at her older sister's nursing home in need of a place to live & work. As she arrives around Christmas time,most of the residents have already gone home to family, except for a scant handful miserable,cranky residents,who are nick named by the staff as "the hard core". Hayley Atwell shines as Ellie, the obviously pretty,young face,among the resident batch of sour balls, who refuses to put up with their b.s. This film reminded me a lot of the British comedy,'Experience Preferred,But Not Necessary' (which was also about a young lass who goes to work for a Summer holiday resort in the English seaside coast). If you like a light,refreshing,breezy comedy that will make you smile as you exit,then 'How About You',from 2007 may just be your cup of tea. Not rated,but contains profanity & drug humour.

Greetings again from the darkness. Based on a short story by Maeve Binchy, this film is prevented from going too deeply thanks to the TV direction of Anthony Byrne. This one really has the feel and pace of a Hallmark Movie of the Week ... only with a really nice cast.Hayley Atwell (The Duchess) plays Elle, the black sheep of the family, who shows up unannounced at the private retirement center her big sis owns. The home is struggling due to the rude behavior exhibited by four of the residents played by Brenda Fricker and Imelda Staunton (as sisters), Vanessa Redgrave (a former performer who longs for the spotlight again) and grumpy, lonely widower Joss Ackland (from the EverReady Bunny commercials, and for his line "Diplomatic Immunity" in Lethal Weapon 2). These four don't much like each other and certainly don't care for any others. Until ... you guessed it ... Elle reminds them what living is all about.Must also mention a terrific supporting turn by Joan O'Hara, who brings a little wisdom and a twinkle in the eye to Elle. Sadly Ms. O'Hara passed not long after filming. I really thought Ms. Staunton stood out for her interesting portrayal of the co-dependent sister with a dark family secret. Well, at least it is dark for this film, which again, just doesn't dig too deeply into anything.A message film with the simple message that loneliness should be avoided and don't stop living until you have taken your last breath. The title song is played at least 3 different ways in the film.

I have just seen How About You at its U.S. premiere as part of the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Although there are, as we've grown to expect, beautifully judged performances from Joss Ackland, Brenda Fricker, Imelda Staunton and Vanessa Redgrave, to say nothing of the up-and-coming younger actors, the highlight for me was the performance of Irish actress Joan O'Hara, whom I did not know. Ms O'Hara gave us the most beautiful, sensitive, intelligent face of a very mature woman I have ever seen, a face which the camera seemed to caress in closeup. I was saddened to learn that Joan O'Hara herself died in July 2007 and this may have been her final performance.