Our Souls At Night

A spare yet eloquent, bittersweet yet inspiring story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the imminent future.
The script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber is just way too convenient and feel good to feel real. In a third world country, where people die after a stampede at a railway station and the government takes no responsibility, such problems in the first world as depicted in the movie may not make you care. But maybe everyone in America (and in fact the whole world) needs some good news, a ray of hope in these increasingly pessimistic times.

According to Netflix, the movie was available to stream on Friday, September 29. Daily Variety confirms, “Netflix will be releasing Our Souls at Night to its global platform on September 29, mere weeks after its glittery Venice Film Festival premiere.”
In the first scene of Our Souls at Night, Widow Addie Moore (Jane Fonda) rings the doorbell of neighboring widower Louis Waters (Robert Redford) and suggests that, seeing as how it’s no fun being alone at night, they sleep together. This is strange, as they seem like only nodding acquaintances. Her bluntness takes him aback and him stammers that he needs to think about it and she hears that as a rejection, smiles tightly, and amscrays. But if he doesn’t phone her, there’s no movie, so he does and the result is a contrived but surprisingly enjoyable return visit with two frequent co-stars and a few other wonderful actors.

A half-century ago, this legendary pair were a couple of kooky unshod newlyweds doing Neil Simon shtick in the marital lark “Barefoot in the Park.” Now they are reunited thanks to Netflix, which has been fond of Fonda ever since she and her “Nine to Five” buddy Lily Tomlin teamed up as unlikely roomies on the sitcom “Grace and Frankie.”
Just like widow Addie and widower Louis, neighbors in a cozy Colorado town whose paths have crossed now and then over the years, the two stars possess a certain ease and unspoken rapport when in each other’s presence, even if Redford’s character initially is somewhat taken aback by the idea of senior citizen sleepovers.

Fortunately, Armitage is the rare kid actor who’s not a bit kid-actorish. He seems absolutely real. And Schoenaerts — in a familiar kind of part — is remarkable, as he often is. He’s non-ingratiating, dangerous. Judy Greer has only one scene as Louis’s mixed-up daughter, Hollie, but she registers — this might even be her most vivid performance. Screwing up her courage to tell her father what she plans to do with the rest of her life, Greer’s Hollie turns into a scared little girl, desperate to know her own mind. A surprise bit of casting in the group of men whom Louis meets for lunch is Bruce Dern, settling into old age with his orneriness intact.

Their brave adventures - their pleasures and their difficulties - are hugely involving and truly resonant, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.