The Time of Their Lives

There's real potential in pairing old pros Joan Collins and Pauline Collins, then asking them to act their age. Joan plays a former screen goddess who absconds from her retirement home and, with Pauline's housewife reluctantly in tow, heads to France for the funeral of an old film-director friend.En route, they manage to save a small boy from drowning, steal several cars and have a liaison with a rich and reclusive artist (Franco Nero). This autumn-years comic odyssey has its moments - some funny, some sweet and some moving. But too often the material is far less limber than its stars - Joan does most of the comedy; Pauline does most of the acting; Franco effortlessly does both - and resorts too readily to corn, cliché and implausibility. Neither great nor grim but somewhere in between, this is a film for nostalgic older audiences.