Review: 'Ruth and Alex'

Depsite playful performances from Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton, this is an unrealistic portrait of late-in-life relationships, says Patrick Smith
Few actors can do gravitas quite like Morgan Freeman. Think back to him as the wise old inmate who takes Tim Robbins under his wing in Shawshank Redemption, or the disillusioned, seen-it-all detective in Se7en, or the first black president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, in Invictus. Lesser known is his capacity to play the twinkly romantic role, doling out short, sharp witticisms with a puckish grin and a look of love. This is the side of Morgan we see in Ruth & Alex, the new film from Wimbledon director Richard Loncraine adapted from Jill Ciment's novel Five Floors Up. 

Morgan stars alongside the venerable, dependable Diane Keaton; together they make such an amiable couple that, if nothing else, you'll feel an urge to coo at the way they finish one another's sentences. Beyond their playful lead performances, however, what we get is an unrealistic and unadventurous portrait of late-in-life relationships in ever-changing New York. Incident is in criminally short supply – the most nail-biting aspect of the film is whether the couple's tiny terrier will walk again after a $10,000 operation – while a musty, self-congratulatory quality permeates the entire script. 

The Ruth and Alex of the title are a schoolteacher-painter couple who have spent 40 years of marriage living in their beloved Brooklyn apartment. Five flights of stairs, however, are becoming harder to handle, and pressured by their highly strung real-estate-agent niece (Cynthia Nixon), they agree to put the place on the market. Soon the property is swarming with loathsome New York stereotypes interested – or in most cases, not – in buying it.
A drama without drama: Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman as Ruth and Alex
A drama without drama: Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman as Ruth and Alex

While all this is happening, a crash on the Williamsburg Bridge prompts a media-engineered terrorist manhunt – an excuse, no doubt, to lampoon Fox News while making corny generalisations about post 9/11 anxiety.  

The movie also allows for a series of cloying flashbacks to the early Seventies, in which Claire van der Boom and Korey Jackson (playing younger versions of Ruth and Alex) touch upon the couple's past hurdles, such as how their marriage was once illegal in 30 states and how Ruth couldn't have children. Just as the film’s depiction of the way gentrification has affected Brooklyn feels undernourished, so too it squanders the opportunity to explore the difficulties of intermarriage in the past. Ruth & Alex is a drama without drama: the cinematic equivalent of a barbiturate. Morgan and Keaton deserve better material.

 Actors Diane Keaton, Morgan Freeman, Cynthia Nixon Director Richard Loncraine Genre Drama Synopsis A long-time married couple who've spent their lives together in the same New York apartment become overwhelmed by personal and real estate-related issues when they plan to move away. Release Date July 24 Duration 92 mins Rating 12 Country USA