Note: Far too many spoilers! Just see it!

Filmmaker Eric Schaeffer (of "My Life's in Turnaround" fame) must have heard all the aging actors and actresses complain about how there are no good roles for them. With "Never Again" he creates a romantic comedy for the over 50's set. But just as teen romantic comedies can speak to all generations, Schaeffer's film does as well.

Well, okay, perhaps if you under 25 you wont get it, but anyone with a bit of maturity will. After all, is there a person who isn't almost 30 or older who doesn't understand the fear of growing old alone? Schaeffer's comedy hinges on this fear. And it does so in new, interesting and, most importantly, bold and frank ways.

"Never Again" isn't afraid to show it's older actors, Jeffrey Tambor ("The Larry Sanders Show") and Jill Clayburgh ("Looking for Mr. Goodbar") french kissing, engaging in oral sex or plain making out. The two play tonsil hockey like teenagers. But the film is never gross or prurient. Rather, it simply shows older folks (I'm so close to their age I almost want to call them "folks in the prime of their lives") being human, being afraid of love, swearing off love and falling in love anyway. That's the beauty of the double meaning in the title. The leads have sworn to never again fall in love. And once they do, they won't have to fall in love again. It will never happen to them again. It doesn't need to. They are in love for life.

The set-up and boldness of the characters is really awesome. Tambor plays a divorced exterminator and jazz pianist whose grown son lives far away. After dabbling in sex with younger women, Tambor's character has a "gay" sex dream which leads him to be curious about gay sexuality and thinking perhaps he has suppressed his own homosexuality. Although there is one rather drab, typical and homophobic scene where Tambor deals with supposed transgendered Michael McKean ("Spinal Tap") in drag, Tambor deals with his feelings by going to a gay bar and trying to pick up a guy. It's a funny and honest scene. It redeems the gay theme and makes it real again. Meanwhile Clayburgh plays a mother struggling with her daughter going off to college and her own empty nest syndrome. Going 7 years without "getting laid," Clayburgh sets out, with Sandy Duncan and Caroline Aaron in tow, to meet a man. The trio of females get on the internet (giggling like teenage girls while chatting online) before eventually going to a gay bar to let off steam where... You guessed it, Clayburgh meets Tambor. Here too Schaeffer makes only one mistake with Clayburgh actually referring to "Mr. Goodbar" on screen. Even though his film has a similar theme of a single woman trying to meet men, it is too obvious of an in-joke to be funny and it separates the film's plot from the fiction it is trying to create.

Regardless, Tambor and Clayburgh are simply awesome together. They have chemistry that practically cures cancer. And their candid and blatant discussions of love, lust and sexuality are refreshing and surprising. Clayburgh and Tambor agree to be honest with each other, "no bullshit," and the film adopts this same attitude. The leads are simply wonderful. Clayburgh has a wonderful and powerful climactic scene, where she berates Tambor for his inability to maintain a relationship that is one of the best performances I've seen by a female in ages.

A really funny scene reminds us that these people, or rather - people of this age, were on the forefront of the sexual revolution. Why is it surprising to us to hear older folks, male or female, talk openly about sex and sexuality and using frank language. "Never again" doesn't contain this scene and scenes like it to shock us or make us laugh at the supposed absurdity of it all. Rather, it is simply open and realistic and allows the reality of the situations and dialogue to generate the humor and surprise. It's a really nice script and the older actors in the film glide through it like a knife through melted butter.

It's too bad that "Never Again" may not convince Hollywood that there is an audience for romantic comedies featuring 50 year olds. There is. The young hip film festival crowd I saw "Never Again" with laughed, cried, cooed and applauded wildly at the film. A young woman behind me cried at the beautiful romantic qualities of the film. I myself found the film romantic, sweet, delightful and hopeful. And God knows, you need hope when your my age!

Note:

Also with Bill Duke.

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