Ladies in Lavender (2005)

A couple of old Dames make the slender story of Ladies in Lavender surprisingly moving. Janet and Ursula (Maggie Smith and Judi Dench), a pair of elderly sisters living on the Cornish coast, discover a young Polish man named Andrea (Daniel Bruhl, Goodbye Lenin!) washed ashore and barely alive. They nurse him back to health and discover that he's a talented violinist--a fact also recognized by a mysterious young woman (Natascha McElhone, The Truman Show), who may woo Andrea away from them. The core of the movie is not its plot but the skillful and delicate play of emotions underlying how the sisters treat Andrea; Ursula, a spinster, finds herself sliding from maternal affection to an embarrassing but irresistible schoolgirl crush. Ladies in Lavender captures something that few contemporary movies bother to consider: Older men and women are as capable of passion and desire as the young, but the young carelessly (and sometimes cruelly) disregard the old. In the hands of Dench (Shakespeare in Love, Iris) and Smith (California Suite, Gosford Park)--as well as David Warner (Time After Time) as a bitter doctor--Ladies in Lavender becomes a bit like a violin concerto itself: Discreet and subtle, but finding in the smallest movements a richness of feeling. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

 Hits a Tender Spot
Based on the short story of the same name by William J. Locke, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench play aging sisters Janet and Urusla, living in Cornwall who discover a body washed up on their coastline. They nurse this barely alive young Polish man back to the land of the living and learn quite by accident that he is a talented violinist. In nursing him and learning to communicate with him, quite a few emotions are surfaced by the sisters, one who has lost a husband to war and one who has never had a chance to love.

Billed as a sort of fairytale, complete with a wicked witch who swoops in and changes everyone lives, this wonderful coming of age (even if you are 60) story hits a tender spot and make you realize that a crush can happen at any age.
May 8, 2008

 Wonderful!
I loved this movie, the setting, the relationship of the women, the easy pace of the story, and particularly the music. Their is one odd quirk in the story, being that the women become sexually attracted to the young boy which the story centers around. It was too weird, and absolutely unnecessary. It would have been much more believable to limit their relationship with the boy to simple rivalry over his affection. As it is, I feel uncomfortable to have my young teenagers watch it. All in all, I will ignore it and enjoy the wonderful music and the women. April 18, 2008

 Ladies in laverder
This is a movie about true love. Two old ladies saved a young man from Poland. They wished him to stay forever by cheating him. A German beatiful painter apprecited his talent and help him becoming a musician. The two ladies realized how to give at last.
The wonderful music in the movie is a marvelous surprise. February 29, 2008

 tear jerking, provocative, emotional, honest, relaxing, sad...
I am a 25 year old male. I have a 65 year old mom. Sometimes I feel like my mom loves me too much! May be it's because she has so many years of her life and I'm only beginning to... But her love is so beautiful, and tender... I know she's there to pray for me at all times. This story is quiet different of course. But it does portray a love of an older lady, just about 65 year old, for a young man, just about in his early 20s. Of course dont' take me wrong, my mom doesn't love me in "that way", ahhh, that's wrong.. but this lady actually does kinda go farther then just a motherly love for this young man they found on a beach... She saves his life of course, but she can't help it but fall in love with him... It's kinda touching because she knows there is nothing she can do. And she knows nothing will ever happen. She knows she's old and naive and silly... Her friend is there to support her, but that's just about it... I say this movie is amazing in every way. And let me tell you, if I was that young man, I'de show at least a little more effection towards the lady... He didn't in my opinnion really apretiate the gift that the ladies gave him... He was too young I guess... but they were too old.. If time ver told him and reminded him of the ladies love, it was probably too late cuz they were gone.... Well they're not gone, not in the movie... I'm just saying...

By the way, this movie is not for those who don't have any clue of what it's like to be old. I am 25, but I do have a 65 year old mom mind you! And I know that age doesn't change a thing. Age is just there to take us away from this world, but no matter how old, we are young. We still have same emotions, same laughter.... Not of course if you try hard to hide it all inside, but that's another story... The point is, if you are young, of if you have never been in love, of if you just dont' quite have any respect for older people, this movie is not for you. Otherwise,

I do recommend this movie. To anyone who loves a great art that's not dead but alive and leaves a tendered touch in your heart afterwords.... February 26, 2008

 A slice of Heaven
For me this movie is the type of movie for a slow Sunday when you think, oh I have nothing to do but then you think oh I can watch my Ladies in Lavender. And when you are watching it, the swollen emotional ache that is etched across Judi's face is just so touching. It is just heartbreaking to see her realize everything she has missed out on. Then with the intrusion of their lives that Andrea is, she gets to have a little glimpse of that life only to have it pulled right out from under her. My heart just breaks for her as I watch. This movie is just a sliver of what Judi and Maggie are capable of. They are magnificent. February 25, 2008

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