3/5 interesting .good story
  by veronica (long island new york)
but not riveting make sure you put subtitles on as dialogue gets very gravelly......albert finney is sad to see and sometimes hard to understand

5/5 The Journey of Two Men
  by prisrob (New EnglandUSA)
Reggie Conyngham-Jervis: You are a prissy little tight ass bastard aren't you, Southgate?
Roy Southgate: If you say so, sir.

Marvelous,humorous,sad and lovely; a few words to describe this film. Albert Finney plays Reggie, a Squadron Leader in the RAF during WWII, and he thinks of those years as the best of his life. He meets up with a man,
Roy, played by Tom Courtenay in hospital where both have wives who were dying. They saw each other several times and in fact, both wives died on the same day. Roy attends Reggie's wife's funeral. And, in respect, Reg attends Roy's wife's funeral. Both are visited by a social worker and on the second visit, she suggests that Reg and Roy move in together. Reg has a large home, his wife has left him a small amount of money and when he dies the house goes to a charity. Roy was a milkman of meager means and misses his wife dreadfully, They both think it over and decide this is a good idea.

Roy in fact becomes the subservient wife to Sir, Reggie, the Squadron Leader. Finney plays Reg as an overblown gent drinking and womanizing and hiding his true self. Roy is a good cook and loves caring for the home. Roy dislodges one night that he and his wife had sex every night of their married life. This notches him up higher in Regs eye. Reg tells him he has had more women than he can remember but Roy has had more sex than he did. The two have a day to day life with Roy caring for Reg and Reg going out every night drinking at the pub. And, then a lovely woman comes into the scene- obviously, she is looking for money, and Reg starts a relationship with this woman. Wonder how that turns out?

I absolutely loved this film. Albert Finney and Tom Courtney are perfect in their roles and play together so well. Finney as I said earlier plays an overblown guy and then when we least expect it, his expression changes and we can see in his face what he is really thinking. We know the sadness and the light with Finney's wonderful expressions. Tom Courtney plays it close to the vest and what you see is what you get.

Highly Highly Recommended. prisrob 06-01-09

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5/5 A Delight
  by Diane K. Wilson (Pacific Grove, California USA)
This is one of those wonderful British films that are hilarious and poignant at the same time. One feels free to laugh at events which would ordinarily be sad, or even tragic. There is always, however, an underlying tenderness - an emotion which the British films can so effortlessly evoke.

5/5 Another brilliant Andrew Davies adaptation
  by meg (santa monica, california)
Shown on Masterpiece Theatre (during the Russell Baker years), this reunites two spectacularly fine actors of British cinema's "angry young man" era. The virile Albert Finney of Saturday Night & Sunday Morning, and the subtle Tom Courtenay of Billy Liar or The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, may come to mind again as you watch them in this twilight story of two widowers learning to live without their wives of forty years.

Finney plays something of a lion in winter, a self-approving type who still expects people to address him as Squadron Leader. Courtenay plays a gentler sort, whose cherished memories of the war years are related rather to the love affair with his wife than glory past. The characters here may remind you also of roles the actors played in their middle years in The Dresser -- Finney's vainglorious Shakespearean attended by Courtenay as his backstage dresser. The script and the acting in this humorous, human drama actually teach us things -- about love and friendship, about regret and grief, about old age, about companionship and dignity, about the poignant sweetness of an old Glenn Miller song. Beautiful.

5/5 The best
  by New books
Film doesn't get any better than this, in a splendid production.
Ignore the popcorn movies and have yourself a real treat, watching truly great actors doing what they do best.
Capable of Murder