A widow and former songstress discovers that life can begin anew at any age.
In this vibrant, funny, and heartfelt film, a widow and former songstress discover that life can begin anew at any age. With the support of three loyal girlfriends (June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, and Mary Kay Place), Carol (Blythe Danner) decides to embrace the world, embarking on an unlikely friendship with her pool maintenance man (Martin Starr), pursuing a new love interest (Sam Elliott), and reconnecting with her daughter (Malin Akerman).
Long an empty nester, widowed and retired, both from teaching and her short stint singing in a band, Angeleno Carol Petersen leads a staid life with her aging dog, Hazel, she not straying from the straight and narrow in the process. That "don't rock the boat" life includes resisting the move made by her best friends and bridge-playing regulars Rona, Georgina and Shelly to move into Royal Oaks or a similar upscale retirement facility, where the seeming goal is to keep the residents socially connected at any cost. When Carol is forced to put Hazel down, she can no longer ignore the loneliness of her life. Beyond the unexpected house guest to replace Hazel, Carol embarks on two very different relationships with two very different men, each who fulfills a different void in her life: Bill Young, a new resident at Royals Oaks, he who is seemingly self-assured but all alone in the world; and Lloyd, her new pool man who is half her age, and to any outsider a person who is floundering in life in not knowing what he wants and thus not making any real efforts to move ahead.—Huggo
The film begins with Carol (Blythe Danner) waking-up in a bed which used to hold two people. Now her only bedmate is her elderly dog. Soon she is the only one occupying the bed. When she sees a rat in her house, she sleeps outside by the pool. The next morning Lloyd the pool guy (Martin Starr) wakes her. They form a bond and he takes her out Karaokeing - a new adventure. Soon Carol is back spending her day, like all days, playing cards with her friends: other elderly women living in a nearby retirement village. She meets Bill (Sam Elliott) a widower who dates her thereby continuing to open her up to life. Carol's grown daughter comes to visit, learns about her mother's new adventures and is excited that her mother is beginning to live again. Bill dies before he and Carol can re-start life, this time with each other. But Lloyd re-enters her life, captures the rat and Carol sees that both of them need to move on and live for the future. If Carol was a teenager this would be a 'coming-of-age' film. But Carol is a widow in her 60's so it's a 'coming-to-terms-with-life' film. At the film's end, Carol gets a rescue dog to replace her earlier dog and moves on with life.
