A different way of telling a story

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

I never thought of this in such a way. I can only assume this is how life truly is for a person under these circumstances. Totally unexpected. A little slow in places but I loved it. I bawled like a baby.

I rarely do this, recommend a bad film. But I will ask if you start this, that you see it through.The film takes advantage of the fact that we have a profoundly well developed notion of a movie romance. We have that here: older woman moves in and that same day asks the old man across the street for a date. They hit it off and have a wonderful Christmas a couple days later. He is a lonely bagger at the local grocery store, and apparently has never had a Christmas with another soul. In the first scene, we see him wrapping a present to himself.For the first very long section, we are dipped in movie love, as we not only see the romance but we see it with an excess of cinematic sugar: when she says she likes him, the entire street lights up with Christmas lights behind her, for instance. There is lots of snow and gauzy happiness. In the filmmaker's defense, we are given some hints that things are not quite right. Our fellow has nightmares of unformed nature. Our love interest across the street is panicked when a prescription goes awry. Our fellow seems to occasionally get confused and borderline violent.And then after an immersion in the sickly romance as perceived by our guy, we have a big reveal. He has advanced dementia. The woman and her daughter across the street is his family and has been for decades, but he has forgotten. He fell in love with his wife all over again. The store where he works is a business he built, now managed by a quirky guy we discover is his son. His wife has been sneaking in every day and preparing meals, drugs (the problem prescription was his) and reminder post-its. This is a pretty disturbing shift, in part because it is so unexpected. Any filmmaker who would stoop as low as we had experienced for an hour, milking the cheapest of tricks would be expected to coast home on those alone. But it does recast what we have seen (and been somewhat affected by) as the last kind of story that a disappearing mind can hold on to. And that is something even the most talent filmmakers fail with much of the time.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

At first I thought there too much of an age difference between the two main characters for a romance, but looking them up I see that they were both in their 70s during filming, and are only 4 years apart in age.Martin Landau is Robert Malone, living alone, his daily routine involves going to a local grocery store where he does odd jobs. He seems to have a good relationship with the store manager, Mike.One day he goes outside and absentmindedly forgets to close his front door. It is winter, and when he gets home is puzzled, then finds a woman in his house, Ellen Burstyn as Mary, a neighbor. At first Robert is angry that someone is in his house, but cools down.Mary ends up inviting Robert for dinner. She seems to be interested in him, he seems to be flattered. They keep the date, they get along well.This is a very nice small movie, made special by the acting of Landau and Burstyn. Also with Adam Scott as the store manager Mike and Elizabeth Banks as Mary's daughter Alex.SPOILERS: We soon figure out that Robert has some memory problems, maybe just dementia. Mary is actually his wife, Mike his son, managing the store his dad, Robert, owns. And Alex is the daughter. Robert doesn't know who they are anymore, but they still love him and try to do what they can to keep in a relationship with him, and help to keep him safe and happy.

"Lovely, Still" is a story of discovering love late in life. It has the potential of being schmaltzy like the similar "Letters to Juliet" (2010), but it manages to avoid that trap and displays much more honest emotion like "Away From Her" (2006).Martin Landau is the oft-confused and bewildered Robert who quickly falls in love with the more out-going Mary (Ellen Burstyn). The supporting characters were particularly well crafted. I enjoyed Adam Scott as Mike, Robert's boss and friend, and Elizabeth Banks as Alex, Mary's daughter.Set during the holiday season, "Lovely, Still" is charming and amorous. Recommended for fans of the genre.