Elsa lies about everything: Her age, her past, whether she just had a traffic accident, her weekly visits to a dialysis center.
But she has a passion for life that’s unquashable.
Fred is dull. His wife recently died, but there wasn’t much life in her when she was around. He has a nagging daughter and assorted aches, and his future looks like one long sigh.
tag70+ romance
But then Fred (Manuel Alexandre) moves into an apartment across from Elsa (China Zorilla), and their lives are changed. He offers her some psychic sanctuary, she offers him some spirit. Soon enough they are boyfriend and girlfriend. At the age of 77.
Neither terribly exciting nor numbly dull, “Elsa and Fred,” an Argentine import that takes place in Madrid, is a safe sort of old- folks story. It has enough sentiment and hope and romance to be uplifting, but it’s also grounded by sprinklings of reality — Elsa’s ill health, Fred’s greedy son-in-law, the lies that reveal Elsa’s fragile state.
There is always, of course, good fun to be had in odd couples, but the fun feels awfully familiar. You know exactly how these two will balance each other 10 minutes into the film.
Still, those in search of Sunday-afternoon affirmation may find “Elsa and Fred” just the appealing little piffle of a film they’re in the mood for.
“Elsa and Fred”
PG for some mild thematic elements and language. 1 hour, 48 minutes. Directed by Marcos Carnevale; written by Carnevale and Marcela Guerty; starring Manuel Alexandre, China Zorrilla, Blanca Portillo,Omar Munoz. Opens today at the Chez Artiste.
