I remember the character played by Meg Wyllie on "Designing Women" indicating that 80 birthdays weren't thrilling to her anymore, and could imagine someone 30 years older than that feeling the same way. No birthday celebration will be going Barry Fitzgerald's way, and the delightfully crotchety old man wants no celebration, especially when a TV producer shows up and wants to film his celebration.
With Fitzgerald in his penultimate film joined by the Abbey Theatre players, this was definitely an arthouse film that would appeal to a specialized audience so it's a very rare film, even if it stars the only actor in history to be nominated for leading and supporting Oscars for the same film. 40 years younger than his character, Fitzgerald is obviously older, but makes no effort to play someone his character's age, an issue with the script. Or perhaps he's just too mean for death to want to visit.
While I'd buy a 90 year old man romping around like he does, no way for 110. This doesn't seem very cinematic, making it clear that this probably would have worked better as a TV anthology special as it's rather studio bound and unlike the leading character pretty lifeless. June Thornton as his granddaughter and Tony Wright are pushed into a ridiculous romantic subplot that slows this down painfully.
With Fitzgerald in his penultimate film joined by the Abbey Theatre players, this was definitely an arthouse film that would appeal to a specialized audience so it's a very rare film, even if it stars the only actor in history to be nominated for leading and supporting Oscars for the same film. 40 years younger than his character, Fitzgerald is obviously older, but makes no effort to play someone his character's age, an issue with the script. Or perhaps he's just too mean for death to want to visit.
While I'd buy a 90 year old man romping around like he does, no way for 110. This doesn't seem very cinematic, making it clear that this probably would have worked better as a TV anthology special as it's rather studio bound and unlike the leading character pretty lifeless. June Thornton as his granddaughter and Tony Wright are pushed into a ridiculous romantic subplot that slows this down painfully.