Never Again

REVIEW
A real surprise, Never Again is an alternately hilarious and touching romantic comedy about two fifty-somethings who, despite vows of “never again”, embark on a love affair. Jill Clayburgh stars as Grace, a divorcée and recent empty nest-er, with Jeffrey Tambor (“The Larry Sanders Show”) as the also-divorced Christopher, an exterminator by day and part-time jazz pianist by night. Grace, who admits that she “hasn’t been laid in seven years,” has a good job and friends but longs for intimacy. Christopher finds that the club setting provides a great source of young women for dates. But after an “equipment failure” and a dream in which the lovely woman he is seducing morphs into a man, he finds himself in the midst of a sexual identity crisis. Deciding he may be gay, Christopher seeks the company of men and finds himself in a gay bar where Grace and her two female friends are having a drink. And despite her friends' admonishments that a gay bar is not the best place to find a mate, Grace and Christopher defy the odds and give it a chance. Shot on location in West Harlem and the Upper West Side, the film sparkles with the wonderful chemistry between the two leads and a witty, sassy script. Director-writer Eric Schaeffer (My Life’s in Turnaround) has taken on the unusual topic of late-in-life romance and eroticized it with great humor and charm.