At age 75, actor Dustin Hoffman had graduated at last to directing a film, and he takes it slow and easy with his initial foray behind the camera. Very veteran British actors nibble on the scenery in this pleasant, harmless adaptation of Ronald Harwood's 1999 middlebrow play set in a retirement home for ex-opera performers. As one can surmise, each character is delightfully eccentric, none more so than the self-absorbed one-time diva (reliable Maggie Smith) whose sudden arrival at the home causes havoc. Will she, or won't she, have a rapprochement with the ex-husband (Tom Courtenay) whom she walked out on? Will she, or won't she, join the others on stage in a quartet rendition of Verdi? Not to worry: it all unravels splendidly in this teeth-in-a-glass comedic drama.
