They say the only part of life more difficult than falling in love is maintaining the spark. For many longtime couples, it feels like the passion disappears after a while and is replaced with pleasant boredom more than anything else. While many of us may not be able to attest to having firsthand experience, it is very clear that it’s a common process, and one that many couples have to face at some point in their relationship. For those who choose to try and rekindle the spark, the process of falling in love all over again can be a challenging but fruitful endeavour, albeit one that isn’t without its obstacles. This is the premise of Late Bloomers, in which director Julie Gavras weaves a lovely yarn about schoolteacher Mary and architect Adam, a married couple living in London, both of whom are rapidly heading towards their sixties, and start to feel the pressure that comes with realizing that they are entering into their golden years, whether it be realizing that their careers are essentially in their final stages, or that they are not nearly as young as they used to be, a realization that comes with some challenges. They both undergo something of a late-life crisis that causes them to gradually drift apart, and they each pursue their own temporary independence, not quite separating, but instead trying to live on their own terms for a while. However, this momentary separation actually doesn’t yield the positive results that they expected, since they come to realise that, despite the banality of their marriage, they simply cannot live without one another. Anchored by a pair of tremendous performances and driven by a genuinely moving combination of humour and pathos, Late Bloomers is a lovely film that works through a few peculiar challenges to become a heartening and striking examination of a marriage supposedly in decline, but which gradually reveals itself to be much more profound than either of them would have initially imagined.

It doesn’t seem entirely accurate to call Late Bloomers a romantic comedy, since most of the story focuses on the more challenging moments in the life of a couple that used to be in love, but who have seemingly fallen into a state of complete apathy, not necessarily for one another (they still care very deeply for each other), but rather their marriage as an entity, since everything that made it exciting and enthralling has seemingly been lost as a result of the passage of time, which turns out to be the final blow to what has been a steady decline in passion for quite a while. Yet, there is still something enchanting about this film and what it represents, and its approach to exploring the lives of these characters is fascinating. Gavras is fascinated by the concept of love after a certain age – much like any relationship, whether one that is romantic or platonic, time can erode the excitement and joy that comes with this kind of companionship, especially when it is with someone you spend nearly every day with. Exploring the relationship between these two people who clearly are compatible in many ways, but who find themselves drifting apart as a result of the combination of time-induced boredom and their own internal insecurities, is the foundation for this very charming film. Late Bloomers could have easily have been a dense, unforgiving melodrama consiting of numerous layers of tension, but we have to admire and appreciate the daring and somewhat polarizing choice to make it more of a freewheeling, charming comedy dealing with these two deeply insecure individuals as they try and rekindle the spark of their relationship while also pursuing their own specific desires, which leads to a lot of tension and which ultimately brings them back together at the end of this period of separation.

There is a very small, elite group of actors who are almost always the best aspect of any film in which they appear, since they capture the true spirit of what a great actor should aspire to be, and usually possess immense amounts of pure charisma. Isabella Rossellini is unquestionably one such actor, and it seems almost natural to expect that she will be the highlight of any film in which she participates, even if it is only in a small, marginally supporting role. In the case of Late Bloomers, she is front and centre, acting as the face of the film. It isn’t very often that we find Rossellini leading any film, and while this is quite a small, intimate production, it feels expansive solely because of her presence, which is somehow both deeply endearing and larger-than-life. Her screen persona is one of the greatest in the history of the medium – her slightly eccentric, off-kilter personality seamlessly blends with her magnetic beauty emerging from those striking features that she has successfully utilised for so much of her career. As far as I am concerned, Rossellini is one of the last truly great film stars of her generation, and while the film is quite small, it feels much bigger due to the strength of her remarkable performance. She is paired with William Hurt, who is excellent, but who unfortunately cannot come close to being nearly as resonant or compelling as his on-screen partner, despite his immense dedication. Late Bloomers is a two-hander, and the chemistry between the leads is palpable, but this is thoroughly Rossellini’s film, and she commands the screen with the same vivacious energy as she has for the past few decades, proving that she is as compelling today as she was at her peak – but then again, has there ever been a point in her career where she has never been producing remarkable, complex work? This film is a fantastic starring vehicle for her as an actor, and even when it begins to meander a bit, she remains the only consistently brilliant part of it, keeping the story alive and giving us something in which we can invest, even if it is the most subtle and simple of emotional cues that constitute this remarkable and captivating performance.

However, its in these performances that we start to see that the film is not only about an older couple trying to rekindle the spark that was lost throughout their marriage, but also functions as a complex character study about two people who suddenly realize they are not as young as they used to be, and in an effort to reverse the fleeting nature of time, they fall into the trap of desperately trying to recapture their youth. One of the most memorable moments in this film comes early on, when Rossellini is at the gym she frequents, and in an effort to assure herself that she is still desirable and alluring, she tries to attract the attention of the men surrounding her. None of them even glance in her direction, a scene that is both funny and heartbreaking, and sets the tone for the film as a whole. This is where most of the humour is extracted, but there is something much deeper about how the film approaches this side of the narrative, which is reflected in the slightly melancholy tone. There isn’t much of a narrative arc to this film – its a series of moments in the lives of the two main characters, showing brief vignettes from their day-to-day routine, and while some of it can be considered quite banal and trivial, there is a purpose to this side of the narrative, and the film flourishes into something much more profound as time progresses, developing in a fascinating and complex story of independence. Tonally, the film takes on quite a unique appearance, shifting between eccentric comedy and heartfelt drama, doing so with very little difficulty and finding the nuance in both approaches. Considering how much of the film is focused on exploring the psychological states of these characters, its absolutely remarkable that it manages to be so compelling and concise, even through some of the more challenging material that would derail any other film, proving how much this film was a true labour of love, and made by a team that truly cared about this material and the underlying message.

Late Bloomers is certainly not a film that many will find to be much of an achievement – it’s a reliably entertaining, often heartfelt comedy about a marriage in decline, and those expecting a redux of Scenes from a Marriage are likely not going to find what they are looking for here. Instead, they’ll discover a very charming examination of two people who have committed their lives to one another, becoming so invested in the status of being married that they have overlooked their own happiness, and while they would never imply that their spouse is the root of their depression or insecurity, the lack of excitement does not help when it comes to giving them much hope for the future of their personal development. Growing old is a challenge, but there comes a point when someone realises they are in their final chapter, and if it is not promising to be the most exciting and exhilarating of their life, it can be a daunting process to try and recapture the spark of youth and the passionate romances that it defined. A fascinating and moving portrait of two incredibly intriguing individuals as they go about exploring the possibility of change, and realizing that there is comfort in consistency and banality, Late Bloomers is wonderfully delightful and genuinely a beautiful, heartfelt examination of the sometimes challenging aspects of maturity, and the importance of cherishing every moment, as well as those people that reside in them, since life is much shorter and far less predictable than any of us would like to believe, especially in our younger years when everything seems so far away, and the prospect of getting old is almost foreign, a subject that is beautifully explored in this delightful and endearing film.