Grace Quigley (1985)

Katharine Hepburn appeared in several TV movies after this and made a memorable appearance in the 1994 remake of Love Affair, but Grace Quigley marked the great Kate's final leading role in a theatrically released feature. It's easy to see why she was drawn to the material, because there's a smart and pointed comedy lurking in here somewhere, and reuniting with director Anthony Harvey (who guided Hepburn to an Oscar in The Lion in Winter) must have added extra incentive. And while Harvey's approach here is woefully misguided, Kate's intelligence shines through in her title role as an elderly woman who hires a hit man named Seymour (Nick Nolte) to knock her off. Life's been good, Grace argues, and it's better to go out on her own terms than spend her twilight years in a dismal nursing home.

Ironically, hiring Seymour has a revitalizing effect, and Grace assembles an eager batch of elderly clients, all waiting for Seymour to send them to the sweet hereafter. He's no longer an evil killer but an angel of mercy, and business is booming! In fact, the only thing that's poorly executed is the movie itself; Harvey's sense of comedy is too dry, too bland to capitalize on the dark laughs of this premise, and the movie grows morbidly stilted. Even then, Hepburn's grace is a blessing; Nolte is amiably disarmed by her timeless charm, and this death-obsessed movie can't dim her wit and wisdom. Even when Grace Quigley (presented here in its shortened theatrical version) isn't firing on all pistons, Kate's irresistible. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

A dark comedy

I've owned this video for years and am going to transfer it to dvd as I can't find it on that media.

I found many parts of this movie poignant, and the chase scene probably one of the most, if not THE most, hysterical in movie history.

If you don't find assisted suicide distasteful, or at least can understand the reasons for a person wishing to decide for themselves what their quality of life is and should be, do buy this movie. May 22, 2008

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow. . . .

At a time when Dr. Jack Kivorkian has made his way back into the headlines and there is soo much controversy over the morality of mercy killing, "Grace Quigley" lends a comical twist to the issue. Grace Quigley (Katharine Hepburn) seeks out a hit-man (Nick Nolte) to aid her in exiting a world in which she feels she has outlived her usefulness. However, the hit-man is having a hard time dealing with some of his own feelings. A seemingly unlikely pair, Hepburn and Nolte make an unforgettable team in this comedy focused on a highly explosive social topic. June 16, 2001

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