Many of us enter adulthood with standards and plans and agendas. They can be soon tossed away should we be forcibly challenged with an opportunity to reluctantly follow unfamiliar paths as a way to grow. How we become functioning adults can be more the way we spontaneously react to these seemingly unusual options than the way we develop along the paths we have chosen. The story and the photography fulfill this aspect nicely yet merely experienced performers Glenn Close and Frank Langella as the naive author's parents shine as able to carry their scenes on their own merit. Many British television series aired in the US over the decades have handles the same theme with more grace and more lifestyle coaching. What is special about this movie is its depiction of downtown Manhattan juxtaposing struggling singles barely able to afford a bed and a table for their cramped rental and partially with the upper socioeconomic classes of mostly the east fifties from Bergorf's to the Saint Regis with some scenes further uptown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim within walking distance of tony Carnegie Hill. I think choosing Anton Yeltin to recite the lengthy narrative precisely as it would be in a French art film is the weakest part of the product but not the only weak part It is to me more fulfilling to watch again many of the other other options offering this lifestyle choice advice.
