when life is at its finest... when love is at its fullest...

Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon, Dabney Coleman, William Lanteau, Christopher Rydell

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"You know, Norman, you really are the sweetest man in the world, but I'm the only one who knows it." - Ethel

Why watch this? Aging is inevitable for the lucky. It's not easy, but it can be graceful.

Plot Summary: An aging, cantankerous professor and his devoted wife return to their New England lake house for the summer, where they grapple with the realities of growing old and facing mortality. Their quiet routine is interrupted by a visit from their estranged daughter, who leaves behind her new fiancé's rebellious young son to be watched by the couple.

Dad's Preview: Set in idyllic New England, this film highlights the passive beauty from poets like Thoreau or Frost. It is here we meet a couple in their autumn years. Their life journey, warts and wonders alike, has brought them back for summer at the lake. She sees its loveliness - the loons and their calls. He scorns his upcoming birthday and obsesses about death. Perhaps no finer actors, in Hepburn and Fonda, could have been selected to portray Ethel and Norman. The pair are so incredibly believable. Jane Fonda purchased the rights specifically so her father could play the grumpy patriarch. It feels like the film helped Henry and Jane come to terms with their real-life issues. The final result is a poignant, often heart-breaking, window into what it means to grow old.

IPC Films, ITC Films; Universal Pictures, Associated Film Dist. Corp.