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Old Is the New Sexy
She continues: “Blokes can have various false starts and start over again.” She describes a male friend who at 52 is about to have his first child. “That is open to them and that makes a difference in your mental state. In you’re 30s [as a woman] you’re thinking, whatever relationship you get into, is that going to be the one, or what’s the point in having it? Men have much longer,” she says. “Women have to make these decisions earlier on.”
Thompson hopes the movie might suggest that there are abundant new possibilities for love and eroticism, particularly for women getting older. “I hope it widens the palette,” she says. “I’d like audiences to walk away and think, ‘Okay I think I’ll do that,’ whatever it is they’re thinking about that’s exciting. I want to give them the energy of hope.”
If any movie is going to give older people hope about falling in love (or glamorize romance past 50), Last Chance Harvey just may be the one to do it. Thompson and Hoffman both look gorgeous in it. They are old in a new way. In a potent reversal of Sleeping Beauty, it is the aging Kate who awakens the 20 years older Harvey, a jingle writer who has always wished he was a jazz musician. Their romance takes place against the background of a 20-something marriage (of Harvey’s daughter), but the dewy young people take a back seat to the old coots—the lonely, washed-up father of the bride, the elegant old woman who was once his wife, her doting, wealthy new husband, and Thompson as the closeted spinster who is unable to connect with a man as her friends and mother are eager for her to connect. The youth are mere extras, while the mature actors are the stars.
Thompson says her favorite scene in the movie is a late-night encounter between Harvey and his happily remarried ex, played by Kathy Baker. He asks why his ex married him. “Because you were a lot of fun,” she says. When he asks if her new husband is a lot of fun, she smiles seraphically. “He thinks I’m fun,” she says.
“In just those few lines,” Thompson says, “they manage to convey the length and breadth of their relationship and why it broke down.”
Poignant moments like these, Thompson says, show that though romance and sex are possibly at any age, they will always come with emotional fallout. “It’s possible to fall in love at any age, but when you’re older you know what kind of tears it can end in,” she says. “Being in love is being in love, it’s one of those absolute states. It’s like being dead. You know you can’t just sort of be slightly in love; you’re in love, and that’s how it is.”
Susan Cheever is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including American Bloomsbury, My Name is Bill, Note Found in a Bottle, As Good as I Could Be, Home Before Dark, and Treetops. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a director of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author’s Guild. Cheever teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars and at the New School.
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Susan Cheever is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including American Bloomsbury, My Name is Bill, Note Found in a Bottle, As Good as I Could Be, Home Before Dark, and Treetops. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a director of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author’s Guild. Cheever teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars and at the New School.
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Susan Cheever is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including American Bloomsbury, My Name is Bill, Note Found in a Bottle, As Good as I Could Be, Home Before Dark, and Treetops. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a director of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author’s Guild. Cheever teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars and at the New School.
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Susan Cheever is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including American Bloomsbury, My Name is Bill, Note Found in a Bottle, As Good as I Could Be, Home Before Dark, and Treetops. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a director of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author’s Guild. Cheever teaches at the Bennington Writing Seminars and at the New School.
sandrac
Let's see - she is 49 and is "old" and he is 71. Looks like the same old hollywood story to me. Couldn't they find an "old" 49 year old male actor she could fall in love with? Or was he too busy with the 21 year old daughter? Nothing new here.
PatriceFitz
"Aging old bat"?! Please. Was that supposed to be a wry commentary on the way the world sees women around 50?
Not only is such a character plenty capable of delicious romance (including lust), but a man 22 years OLDER than her would see her as a hot young chick.
I just remarried at 53, and it was stunningly easy to find dates -- even with younger men. I want to see Hollywood make the movie about the 50-year-old woman who has to fend off the advances of guys in their 30's because they're just too young and boring.
thales
First it was "never trust anyone over 30", then it was "30 is the new 20", then "40 is the new 20", and now "old is sexy". I can't wait until "dead is the new sexy", then maybe we can finally rid ourselves of this most-selfish of all generations.
olgafavreau
Ditto and bravo to sandrac. Hoffman is actually old enough to be Thompson's father - why should she get involved with a man whose life expectancy is decades shorter than hers? How about a sequel in which she ends up nursing him during her golden years? Give romantic heroes women partners their own age.
jblum8156
I had a friend who married for the fourth time (no kids yet) at 66 to a 26-yr-old hottie, and proceeded to father two girls. Unforunately he died a few months before the second baby was born but he really was happy about the babies.
kansasrefugee
I'm with sandrac and olgafavreau. Why isn't Helen Mirren or Jane Fonda or Meryl Streep playing the love interest of Dustin's character instead of an actress 22 years younger? And as jblum8156 points out, the failure of older men to acknowledge their mortality leaves children they have in their 60s, or even 50s, at a significant risk of having a childhood without a father - very selfish (and delusional) of these men indeed and why are we as a society indulging them?
Rosita1230
sandrac, you are right on! This is an astounding bit of nonsense applauding the same old story from Hollywood. I don't know how old you are Susan Cheever, but you've got a lot to learn about how to support women of all ages. At 49, I would never have dated a man in his seventies--creak, creak. I would barely date a man in his fifties as I was actively involved with men 10-12-15 years younger. And I'm no great beauty, not am I an exception to what is going on in the world, but I love men who are actively engaged in the world mentally and physically and whose minds are not closed to new ways of thinking about age, love, and sex. The absurd view espoused in this blog must have been meant to provoke discussion. Personally I think women need to boycott films that continue Hollywood business as usual and show support instead for women-produced and directed films that show the full breadth of women's capabilities.
finderj
How old are you that 49 is 'aging'? And since when is a 22-year age difference romantic? I am sure that the film, with the glorious Thompson and the charming Hoffman, is poignant and sweet, but I would really like to see more stories about people over thirty who are reasonably close in age. Let's face it - the much older man getting the younger 'hottie', whatever their respective ages, is largely a male fantasy. When was the last time you saw a popular movie about a woman over 50 being rewarded with perfect romance for getting involved with a 22-year old man? When was the last time you had lunch with women over fifty who were actually hoping to get involved with a twenty-year old boy? Younger, why not? Thirty years younger? Why in the world? Maturity is an advantage, and it's a shame that we haven't got more films out there that celebrate mature people managing to find love, romance and sex, and to avoid the most stupid gaffes inexperience and youthful selfishness cause, with partners about the same age. Any takers?
bridlewood1
Too tired to pretend? Because she's "old" at 49? Because she's "missed her life" as you describe? I can only hope Ms. Cheever that when you reach the "ripe old age" of 49, and having become an even more beautiful, accomplished and intelligent woman than you are at your present age, you will not only be too tired but too dignified to countenance a romance with a wizened 71 year old man who will have no business looking in your direction. That should have been the long and short of this review.
jeffzekas
If you want to see old guys with young women, drive to Lake Tahoe... and, in Hollywood, even if you are "old", you don't LOOK old, due to cosmetic surgery!
smdunne
I think Emma Thompson has two Oscars...not five.
EarlyQuit1
Emma Thomas is a doll and sexy,I am 61 and like to dream.
WICKET99
SPINSTER? I haven't heard THAT word in ages. And here I was, hoping it had just gone out of style...
MS. Cheever: using a word like this is DISGUSTING.
PatriceFitz
According to Wikipedia, Susan Cheever was born in 1943, thus making her 65 -- considerably older than Emma Thompson or the character she plays in this movie.
I can only imagine that Cheever was trying to be provocative. Maybe she should date Dustin.
rosario0829
I love the story in this movie.I can not wait to see it,i think,sexiness is for adults.
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