Unfinished Song (2012)

We enjoyed very much this story of a grumpy old Englishman's interactions with his sweet ailing wife's senior community chorus. Terence Stamp (I didn't see his Oscar-nominated role in Billy Budd (1962) (his second ever acting job), but liked him in Superman (1978); Legal Eagles (1986); The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994); The Limey (1999); Bowfinger (1999); and My Wife Is an Actress (Ma femme est une actrice - 2001)) and Vanessa Redgrave (Oscar winner for Julia (1977); of her five nominations I've seen only the brilliant Howards End (1992); and also liked Blow-Up (1966); Yanks (1979); the TV-movie Playing for Time (1980); Wilde (1997); Cradle Will Rock (1999); Girl, Interrupted (1999); the HBO mini-series If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000); her series arc playing the mother of her real-life daughter Joely Richardson on Nip/Tuck; and Atonement; to name a few) are great as Arthur and Marion. Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace then a small part in Pirate Radio) and Christopher Eccleston (good in Shallow Grave (1994), Elizabeth (1998), and Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), to name a few) have mood swings of their own as the chorus director Elizabeth and James (Arthur and Marion's grown son) respectively. Little Orla Hill is cute as James' daughter Jennifer.

The British Independent Film Awards nominated director/writer Paul Andrew Williams (new to me) for  the screenplay and Stamp and Redgrave for acting. The other members of the chorus bring a great deal to the table as well, as do the musical arrangers!

There is a score composed by Laura Rossi, but the only time I noticed it was one time when I wished I could hear the voices singing instead. This movie will be inevitably compared to Young@Heart (2007), a wonderful documentary about 21st century senior citizens also singing songs much younger than they are. Young@Heart is available now to stream on netflix. Imdb has a pretty good soundtrack list for Unfinished Song (originally titled Song for Marion). While the credits roll you can hear Celine Dion singing a Diane Warren tune Unfinished Song, which makes me wonder if Dion's star power was the reason for changing the movie's title?

On rottontomatoes this is averaging 63% critics, 71 audiences. We highly recommend it at my neighborhood theatre, playing at least until this Thursday.