Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 31
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 14
Boosted by charming performances by the octogenarian leads, Elsa and Fred overcomes its schmaltzy premise to make for a satisfying romantic tale.
Average Rating: 4.9/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 6
Boosted by charming performances by the octogenarian leads, Elsa and Fred overcomes its schmaltzy premise to make for a satisfying romantic tale.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.4/5
User Ratings: 5,122
Two aging Spanish widowers find their fading passion for romance unexpectedly rekindled during a visit to Rome's Trevi Fountain in this romantic comedy starring China Zorrilla and Manuel Alexandre. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
PG, 1 hr. 46 min.
Jun 27, 2008 Limited
Jul 5, 2006
Mitropoulos Films
All Critics (32) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (18) | Rotten (15) | DVD (2)
This starts to get interesting in the homestretch, as the woman's chronic deception begins to catch up with her, but for the most part it's an extended Geritol commercial.
Elsa & Fred feels not substantial enough to bear the weight of its themes. It dissolves like cotton candy, making proper digestion impossible.
For some, the movie will be an emotional paean to love at the twilight of life; to others, though, it's a contrived, manipulative film calculatedly sentimental and -- except for poor Alfredo -- totally false to life.
Elsa & Fred is worth seeing just to admire how Argentine writer-director Marcos Carnevale avoids so much as a whiff of condescension.
A sweet but inconsequential romantic comedy.
Love is said to be blind, but this sweet Spanish romance suggests it may also be ageless.
Loads of erotic chemistry between these two Madrid geriatric lovebirds without the least benefit of raging hormones, a septuagenarian object of desire longing for a male with interesting vices, and screen dreams sexing it up, La Dolce Vita style.
This transparent attempt to tug on the heartstrings doesn't work.
Director Marcos Carnevale makes sure to get his ticket punched at every station in this journey through cinematic convention.
In the end, only the veteran actors playing Elsa and Fred make the movie watchable.
Who would have guessed that, in this age of excess and one-upmanship, when bigger is always better, the year's most romantic screen kiss would last a mere two seconds.
The dream fulfillment seems more silly than romantic, and it brings the movie to an abrupt end that is wholly unsatisfying.
When one thinks of on-screen chemistry, rarely, if ever, do you think of characters in their seventies.
This little gem will have the mature moviegoer completely under its spell.
Elsa is obsessed with the "Fontana di Trevi" sequence from La Dolce Vita, but that's only a reminder that the aging Fellini once accomplished far more effective films about old age and second chances.
Absolutely charming, lovely little film that is sweet, funny, and a little bit sad. A little slow paced, but not at all boring. These two elderly people were quite enjoyable to watch. Plenty of laugh out loud chuckles...and definitely many, many smiles....
September 20, 2011Super Reviewer
Very good movie I know everyone excepts kids maybe would like to see and enjoy. Aging widowers Elsa and Fred visit the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the landmark from Fellini's "La Dolce Vita", and the experience rekindles their passion for love.
August 1, 2008
Super Reviewer
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