Elsa & Fred

A film that is a remake. Fred has just lost his wife. His daughter moves him into a smaller flat and he lives by counting his pills. His neighbour is Elsa. Old, loud, constantly lying, and answering to nobody. Elsa knocks on the door and does not let go after that day. She gets Fred outside, makes him leave a restaurant without paying, and scratches his car. From there the film is a story about opening up. Fred starts talking, forgets his pills, and wants something for the first time. Elsa is ill and hiding it. She has one wish. Since she was young she has wanted to live a scene from a film: inside a fountain in Rome. From there the film goes to Rome. What the narrative is interested in is not love but time: both characters know the end is close, and the film uses that as urgency rather than tragedy. The fountain scene is a reference to a classic of cinema and the narrative says so openly. The source is an Argentine and Spanish co-production from 2005; this is the English-language remake. Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Marcia Gay Harden, Scott Bakula and Chris Noth are in the cast. Michael Radford directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes stories of old age and late love. Who it is not for: anyone looking for originality; the film follows the original scene by scene and adds nothing.