Would it possibly be offensive if I were to offer that Last Chance Harvey is Before Sunrise for the older set? Because it kind of is, and in such a way that I kind of think that filmmaker Joel Hopkins maybe saw that movie, and its sequel, Before Sunset, may be a few too many times. Sorry Mr. Hopkins, but Richard Linklater you are not. That’s not a slight, of course, few are as talented with a camera while being smooth with the dialogue, but the feeling exists nonetheless and honestly, there a great number of much more terrible films to crib from than something from the Linklater oeuvre. (For examples of this, simply walk to another theatre in the multiplex, you should find a couple of examples.)

Last Chance Harvey could easily be called “Sad Sack Harvey” or “How Harvey Got his Groove Back.” Dustin Hoffman is the self-styled Harvey, fighting hardily for a borderline crappy job writing commercial jingles which given modern technology actually has very little to do with jingle writing. His boss (Richard Schiff) is giving him the business about needing to nail this contract, but Harvey’s nervously trying to get to his daughter’s wedding in London. When he gets there, Harvey’s clearly the odd man out as the distance from his daughter Susan (Liane Balaban), his ex (Kathy Baker) and the other members of the family clearly seem strained. The coup de grâce? When Susan tells Harvey that she wants her step-father, Brian (James Brolin), to do the father-of-the-bride duties and walk her down the aisle.

His fatherly absent-mindedness sends Harvey into a shame spiral. At the airport bar he attempts to sooth his guilt with some Johnny Walker, but an airport survey-taker named Kate (Emma Thompson) catches his eye and they start talking. And talking. And talking some more. And walking and talking… See a pattern? Perhaps I’m painting this wrong, because I’m making this sound rather boring. The fact of the matter is though that Hoffman and Thompson have a perfectly good rapport, but I found myself questioning if they had any real chemistry. Good actors can overcome a lot, but experience has shown that true chemistry can’t be faked or supposed. I’m not saying that the two leads were positively charged ions or nothing, just there was some doubt.

But it’s cool though, because I think Harvey is cool. It knows how to take it’s time and paces things out nicely so that the burgeoning infatuation between Harvey and Kate feels natural, but not all together inevitable. Much of the film deals with broad archetypes and story elements though. You know that Harvey and Susan will reconcile, you know that there’ll be some final complication to keep Harvey and Kate apart after their perfect night, and you know that Harvey will be rejuvenated and ready to believe in something again. It’s kind of a cynical fairy tale that doesn’t want to admit it’s a fairy tale and tries to persuade you that it’s something more upstanding. I liked it, but I wasn’t entirely convinced.

The best part of the film by far though was the stuff about Kate’s mother, played with hilarious, blank-faced seriousness by Eileen Atkins, as she suspects her Polish immigrant neighbour of being a psycho killer. It’s funny stuff, laugh out loud funny, which is why it feels like it almost belongs in an entirely separate movie. Otherwise, it’s just really terrible, old-fashioned views on so-called spinsterism, and while Harvey is a hero who must overcome his emotional detachment, Kate’s kind of treated like an object of pity meant only to serve as the fulfilling element to Harvey’s existence. Despite this politically incorrect notion, Last Chance Harvey was fairly crowd-pleasing. It’s a simple story with simple pleasures.