Love Comes Lately (2007)

A college professor Max, is at the center of this film which is based on three short stories by Nobel winner Isaac Bashevis Singer. It is a tender account of a man, who even at the end of his life, is the center of attraction for some women in his life. We follow Max Kohn as he is going to give a lecture at a college. Max is old fashioned, loving to travel by train. His live-in girlfriend, Reisel, is protective of him. Max observes a young woman traveling in his compartment, although they never speaks, she is mysteriously involved in a subsequent meeting with a woman in Florida. The train brings back memories of a time gone by. Max meets one of the women in his life, Rosalie. They had quarreled about Kafka, something she brings up again.Max elicits something in women like no other men in his age bracket. The next story shows him arriving to his next destination and because of a confusion, he ends up in a cheap hotel, where the manager, a Sikh man, is rude to Max. His encounter with a hotel maid is not to be believed, for this older man can drive women nuts.The final segment shows a different character, Harry Bendinger, an old Jewish man now retired in Florida. His next door neighbor, Ethel, invites him to come over her apartment. In the course of their conversation, Ethel mentions her daughter, who happens to be the young woman we saw on the train. Harry having gone through an operation for prostrate cancer is at a loss, but as a nurse reminds him, there are other ways to please a lady.Jan Schutte directed the film which he also adapted from three short stories by Bashevis Singer. The films shows fluidity in the first two segments, but takes a radical change in the last tale. The film is not exactly about love, but the perception of it. Otto Tausig, the Viennese actor, is basically the main reason for watching the film. The actor makes us believe he is no one but Max, and Harry. The ladies in this man's life are played by Rhea Pearlman, who is Reisel, the protective New York girlfriend. Then there is Barbara Hershey, all passion about the way she had quarreled with Max over literary viewpoints. Elizabeth Pena is sensual as the maid, Esperanza. Tovah Feldush is wonderful with her Ethel. Olivia Thirlby is also seen as the daughter of Ethel.

Imagine a man in his 80s who attracts a succession of much younger, beautiful women who want nothing more than to seduce him. Sound unbelievable? Well, the man in question happens to be a writer who confuses reality with his own imaginings. Is he making this story up in some sort of narcissistic haze? The viewer is never quite sure. Some may like this ambiguity; I came to find it a bore. "Love Comes Lately" starts out all right. We see Kohn in a neurotic relationship with his longtime girlfriend, played nicely by Rhea Feldman. He seems mildly charming at this point, if a tad manipulative and dishonest. But then the movie deteriorates into the series of interludes with women who find Kohn irresistible. It was sad to see the wonderful Barbara Hershey cast as one of these deluded groupies. Someone must have discovered Otto Tausig and thought him cute but it was fantasy to think he could sustain a feature-length film.

If you are looking for a movie with a lot of action and witty dialogue, then this movie is not for you. It is a simple story about a simple man as he looks into the future and realizes his own mortality and then thinks back to his long, and what he believes, is not that eventful of a life, even though he is a sought-after lecturer in his 80s. But the audience, and Max does realize that he did have an eventful life after all. The movie does move along slowly, but there is enough interest going on with all the characters that keep popping in and out to keep your interest. Our protagonist, Max, is an 80-year-old author out on a lecture circuit, and along the way to each lecture he's formulating in his mind a story, which he finally writes down, and a story we find out at the end of the movie he began to write at the beginning of the movie, if not before. So while we are watching the movie, especially the scenes where it is obvious he is in Florida, or has a different haircut, or even a different name, we know it's part of this continuing story. It all comes together at the end of the movie. Tausig as Max is perfect. Perlman as his current lady friend (but is that also part of his story?) finally showed me that she is a capable actress. Pena, as usual, is spot on. This is one of those movies AARP would recommend, as I do not think anyone under the age of 50 is really going to get it. Or maybe some will. This is also a movie not to be over-analyzed. And the music, well, I want a recording, and the sheet music! Some of the best ever.

We saw the film at the hamburg filmfest, it was lovely, warm and entertaining and gave a complete different idea about love and age. The main actor Otto Tausig is outstanding, very funny and charming. The story is based on three Isaak Bashevis Singer short stories and merges them very beautifully and organic into one script. The photography of the film is stunning, and it shows America in a different, maybe a little European light (the film has been shot in New York, New England, Florida and California). The music, composed by Henning Lohner from LA and Berlin, was great as well. . Really worthwhile seeing! Josef Sigmund, Hamburg