My Old Lady (Israel Horowitz, 2014)

Kevin Kline arrives in Paris to claim the flat that he has inherited following his father's death, only to find an old Englishwoman (Maggie Smith) in residence and not only refusing to move, but claiming a monthly annuity from him under the arcane French 'viager' system. Then her daughter Kristin Scott Thomas turns up too and is soon at loggerheads with him over the arrangement.
These are three fine actors somewhat let down by overly simplistic characterisation, Kline's character a sort of ageing distillation of the self-centred and intellectually insecure fool he's been doing on and off since A Fish Called Wanda and Maggie Smith presenting her usual curmudgeonly bluntness. Kline mopes about like a superannuated adolescent with verbal diarrhoea as the messy past of his father's affair with Smith and its consequences is excavated and then, somewhat inevitably, he finds love with Scott Thomas. It does contain enough instances of wit to justify persisting with, but offers little real reward at the end.

5/10