I’ll See You in My Dreams

Carol Petersen (Blythe Danner), a widowed retiree in her early 70s, has had a full life. She had fruitful careers as a musician in Greenwich Village in the 60s and later as a schoolteacher in Southern California. She was married to a successful lawyer. And she raised a beautiful daughter named Katherine (Malin Akerman). But that, as Carol says, “is all in the past tense.” Now, 20 years after the death of her husband, she spends her days quietly reading books, golfing, or playing cards with her kooky friends Sally (Rhea Perlman), Rona (Mary Kay Place), and Georgina (June Squibb). While Carol is happier living on her own than in a retirement community with her friends, she still feels her current life is incomplete – that is, until she meets Lloyd (Martin Starr), an aimless pool boy and dejected poet in his 30s, and then Bill (Sam Elliott), a handsome cigar-toting fellow retiree. Suddenly, Carol is navigating more plans than she’s had in years. In the charming dramedy I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, filmmaker Brett Haley combines astute performances with a sharp script to prove it’s never too late to keep living. – E.B.