![]() The movies are benchmarks in the evolution of cultural sensibilities, not to mention the portrayal of men, women and romance. Nostalgia kicks in a bit too, as their films mirror our own disappearing years and the social transformations that have occurred. They’re also icons that the audience has come to know in the 50-plus years the duo has appeared onscreen together, made all the more pointed in watching them age as a couple through the second half of the 20th and now into the 21st century. They’re more than fine actors and they are that. Of course, casting Fonda and Redford adds a whole new dimension. He makes palpable the heady freedom that comes when one’s life is largely viewed through the rear-view mirror, even as the past and the distortions of memory continue to inform the journey. Similarly, Batra focuses his lens on seniors, but here his vision is the sharpest. Like his two previous films, The Sense of an Ending (based on Julian Barnes’ Booker Prize novel), and The Lunchbox, Souls is leisurely paced and restrained in tone. His overstated reaction is a stumbling block in the film (and the novel), which I’ll get to in a moment. ![]() Addie, Lewis and Jamie have become a family, a second chance at doing it right.īut when the foursome (including Bonnie) returns from an Edenic camping trip, Gene has resurfaced, repelled by the presence of Lewis in his mother’s and especially his son’s life. He sets up a toy train set for him, teaches him how to throw a ball, and gets him a dog, Bonnie, an injured mutt they all love. An unhappy kid, Jamie is comforted by Addie’s warmth and especially Lewis, who becomes a pal. Their lives move along at an even keel until Gene, whose wife has jumped ship, suddenly appears on the scene to drop off his seven-year-old son Jamie (Iain Armitage) while he attempts to settle his marital affairs. But after a while they’re no longer news. They appear in public together, and community gossips exchange glances. Fonda’s Addie is one self-contained, grounded woman who knows her own mind, and Redford’s Louis is a sensitive Everyman who is in fact not an Everyman at all.Īddie insists Lewis visit her through the front door and after a time he does. It’s not difficult to fathom their mutual attraction. Her five-year-old daughter Connie was hit by a car and killed when Addie turned away for one moment, and her husband and son Gene (Matthias Schoenaerts) were shattered. A retired schoolteacher, Lewis remains tormented by a brief extramarital affair he had that irreparably damaged his marriage and relationship with his daughter Holly (Judy Greer), who now lives hours away in Colorado Springs. ![]() It’s an alliance that evolves slowly as bits of personal history are revealed. Thus begins their love story based on mutual need for companionship that’s most intense in the dark, predawn hours. There are some exquisitely observed details throughout this woman-driven narrative directed by a man, Ritesh Batra. He doesn’t want the neighbors to see him, and the paper bag, further subterfuge, contains his pajamas. Lewis is startled by the suggestion, to say the least-a subtly drawn comic moment-but its appeal grows and the following night, brown paper bag in hand, he arrives at Addie’s back door. I wonder if you would come and sleep in the night with me. One night, Addie unexpectedly surfaces at Lewis’ house and asks the puzzled Lewis, who has lived as a recluse for decades, if he’d like to spend the night with her. Tongues wag without too much provocation, and while cellphones exist, Addie still looks up telephone numbers in her handwritten address book. Weber from the late Kent Haruf’s elegiac and spare novel (his last), the film recounts the unlikely love story between Addie Moore and Walter Lewis, both widowed septuagenarians living in the sleepy imaginary town of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Haruf’s haunting fiction, and a place where time has stood still. Despite a few age and class-defying intrusions (including Jane Fonda’s stunningly well-preserved appearance) and the replacing of elusive narrative threads with glib snippets, Our Souls at Night is a gentle, autumnal romance starring Fonda and her longtime onscreen lover Robert Redford-a celluloid chemistry that spans more than half a century ( The Chase, Barefoot in the Park, The Electric Horseman).Īdapted by Scott Neustadter and Michael H.
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