Alan J Pakula, who directed All the President's Men and Klute, reveals himself as the romantic one always suspected in this sumptuously photographed weepie with humour trailing in not far behind the tears. It has a breathtaking good performance by Maggie Smith as the dying spinster who finds unlikely romance with a 20-year-old American boy. Whether getting stuck in the loo, gloriously drunk as she attempts suicide, or getting bedded by the boy - `Think of the generation gap! ' she groans - Miss Smith is so good as to boggle the mind.

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