Leads fail chemistry test

The West Australian Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton. Picture: MCT

FILM And So It Goes (M) 3 stars Michael Douglas, Diane Keaton DIRECTOR ROB REINER REVIEW MARK NAGLAZAS

Late-life romance is given a tasteful if not especially lively treatment by Rob Reiner in his return to the genre he reinvigorated with When Harry Met Sally . . ., the 1989 classic that repackaged the milieu and mood of Annie Hall for mainstream consumption.

However, it is not Reiner who is the key here but screenwriter Mark Andrus, who earned a much- deserved Oscar nomination for As Good As It Gets (1997), which yanked off the blanket of smugness that had settled on the romantic comedy genre in the wake of When Harry Met Sally, letting in the chilly wind of reality.

Andrus attempts to recapture the magic of As Good As It Gets by giving us another grumpy curmudgeon, this time a widowed Connecticut real estate agent named Oren Little played by Michael Douglas who wants to sell his magnificent home and use the money to retire.

So while Oren is showing his place, he has moved into one of a set of cute apartments he owns, an edge-of-a-lake bohemian idyll in which he's forced to get up close and personal with his neighbours, including a struggling lounge singer named Leah (Diane Keaton) with whom he has an especially tetchy relationship.

Oren and Leah are drawn even closer when his former-junkie son arrives with his daughter in tow and breaks the news that he is about to go to jail. Oren is horrified at the prospect of looking after his granddaughter, who he has never met, but Leah opens her arms and her home to the child.

Thus begins the humanising and softening of the cynical, misanthropic Oren through his proximity to the embattled but unfailingly warm and friendly Leah, the youngster who needs his love and the lively community who push their way into his life. In other words, As Good As It Gets: The Autumn Years.

Douglas, who is a picture of health after his recent battle with cancer, glides through And So It Goes like the old pro he is, and Keaton, one of the few actresses of her age who has resisted the lure of the knife, revives memories of Annie Hall with her bubbly, inept goofball Leah.

Unfortunately, there is zero chemistry between Douglas and Keaton, who come across more like brother and sister than a couple of baby boomers who are given a chance to leap on the love boat long after they had presumed it sailed. As a colleague quipped: "Michael Douglas and Matt Damon had more chemistry in Behind the Candelabra."

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Leads fail chemistry test