Crystal directs and stars in this oppressively sentimental film about a TV writer coming to terms with his condition with the help of an unlikely new best friend
Billy Crystal directs and stars in this oppressively sentimental dramedy: a glutinous soup of heartbreaking and heartwarming life-lessons, learned as you smile through your tears. Crystal also co-writes with his longtime collaborator,
SNL veteran Alan Zweibel, on whose short story The Prize it is based.
Crystal plays Charlie Burns, an ageing
New York comedy writer and widower. Charlie created Broadway hits and
Hollywood screenplays in his day (some cameos here from Kevin Kline and Sharon Stone), and he is still working on a late-night TV comedy show, though regarded as a dinosaur by the younger writers.
Tiffany Haddish plays Emma, a woman who wins lunch with Charlie at a charity auction. Despite her having zero in common with the old guy, there is an intergenerational spark and they develop an odd-couple friendship. Charlie finds that Emma is the only person to whom he can confide his awful secret: he has dementia and the symptoms are getting worse.