Film

Our Souls at Night

Name: Our Souls at Night
Genre: Romance, Drama
Released: 2017
Cast: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Matthias Schoenaerts, Iain Armitage, Judy Greer

Drama
Romantic drama
Slow-burning

Two elderly neighbours—a widow and widower—tentatively break a long, polite silence and discover unexpected companionship. It's a tender, unhurried film about second chances and the particular loneliness of ageing. Redford and Fonda carry it with remarkable grace. For anyone who believes love stories don't end at forty, let alone seventy.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love quiet, unhurried love stories where two older people talk their way toward intimacy, and small gestures of honesty carry more weight than any big declaration.

Skip it if you want romance with heat or momentum; this one moves at a conversational pace, and its warmth is gentle rather than surprising, so the wait can feel long.

What it asks of you: About an hour and forty minutes of patience: long stretches of talk on porches and in kitchens, with the emotional payoff arriving slowly and at a low, steady volume.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Bridges of Madison County1995

A similar meditation on quiet longing and stolen time between two people who find each other late. Beautifully shot, emotionally mature, and unafraid of melancholy alongside the romance.

But Clint Eastwood's direction can feel a bit remote, and the film dwells in sadness more than hope. Not a comfort watch, despite how tender it is.

Moonlight2016

Another film about connection across an emotional chasm, told with extraordinary tenderness. The performances are quiet and the cinematography is gorgeous. A meditation on intimacy and vulnerability.

But It's a very different story—dealing with identity and trauma in ways that are heavier than Our Souls at Night. Also much more formally experimental.

Still Alice2014

Julianne Moore's performance is devastating but never maudlin. It captures the specific fear of losing yourself and the love that persists anyway. Honest about ageing and decline without sentimentality.

But It's bleaker than Our Souls at Night and offers no neat resolution. The subject matter—early-onset Alzheimer's—is genuinely difficult.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Our Souls at Night

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Paterson2016

Both films are about finding meaning and connection in quiet, everyday life rather than drama or external events. They trust silence and small gestures to carry emotional weight.

Adam Driver as a bus driver and poet in Jersey City. It's quiet, digressive, and entirely focused on small moments of beauty and connection. Jim Jarmusch finds the poetry in routine and neighbour-like companionship.

But Nothing happens. It's meditative to the point that most viewers will find it slow or boring. No arc, no traditional story, just texture and observation.

Nebraska2013

Bruce Dern and June Squibb as an old married couple trying to reconnect before it's too late. Sparse, funny, and deeply human. Shot in black and white, which somehow makes it feel more real.

But It's a road movie, not a romance, and the tone is dour and often comic in ways that might feel at odds with the sentiment. Slow in a way that demands patience.

Beginners2011

About a son's relationship with his father as the father falls in love for the first time at seventy-five. Warm, funny, and genuinely moving. The production design is lovely and the performances are natural.

But It cuts between timelines and can feel a bit precious in its indie-film sensibility. Some may find it too whimsical for the heavier themes it's exploring.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel2012

An ensemble of older actors discovering life, love, and purpose in India. It's lighter than Our Souls at Night but similarly celebrates the vitality of people in their seventies and eighties.

But The tone is closer to feel-good wish-fulfilment than quiet realism. The India setting risks feeling like a postcard rather than a place.

About Schmidt2002

Jack Nicholson as a retired man confronting isolation and his own difficult nature. It's funny, sad, and unsentimental about ageing and the work required to connect with another person.

But Schmidty is often unlikeable, and the film takes pleasure in his discomfort. The comedy can feel mean-spirited if you're looking for warmth.

Let Them All Talk2020

Three women on a ship rekindling and repairing their friendships in their twilight years. Meryl Streep is luminous, and it captures the specific joy of older women claiming space and joy.

But Steven Soderbergh's direction is deliberately casual and sometimes scattered. It's more interested in mood and character than plot, which can feel slight.

The Leisure Seeker2018

Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a long-married couple on a final road trip. It's tender without being sentimental, and genuinely captures the texture of a marriage that has lasted decades.

But The pacing is very deliberate and the film is short on incident. It requires real emotional openness to connect with.

Ikiru1952

Both are about people confronting their own limited time and finding unexpected reasons to live and connect in their final chapters. Both refuse easy answers.

Kurosawa's masterpiece about a dying bureaucrat who spends his final weeks searching for meaning. It's about legacy, loneliness, and the human need to matter. Devastating and oddly hopeful.

But It's in Japanese, from 1952, and deals directly with mortality and regret. The pacing is slow by any standard, and the emotional territory is bleak before it finds grace.

A Man and a Woman1966

Both centre on two people, each wounded by loss, finding connection later in life. But where Our Souls is quiet and grounded, this is operatic and rapturous—a different register on the same emotional truth.

Claude Lelouch's romantic fever dream about two widowed people falling in love at a racetrack. It's gorgeous, jazzy, and formally inventive—colour film stock that glows and swells with romantic possibility.

But It's from 1966 and shot through a very specific romantic filter that can feel dated or overwrought. It's far more stylistically heightened and less grounded than Our Souls at Night.