Timothy Bottoms is a lost and shy young man with no apparent direction or aspirations, not liking college or getting along with or even being understood by his father. He is forced to go on a biking tour across Europe, with a friend of the family being the teacher/chaperone for the trip, but Timothy abruptly leaves the tour and jumps on a bus full of people on their own tour excursion. He befriends Maggie Smith, who has her own problems. They make quite a couple with their own insecurities, but they form an alliance, slowly, very slowly. When one gets closer, the other draws back. Both give very sincere and thoughtful performances. The ending is rather unexpected, but then again what I did expect to happen, realistically? A viewer's appreciation of this film will develop more, with each viewing, as we see a mature look at love, loneliness and real life and shows Maggie Smith and Timothy Bottoms at their restrained best.

And just as funny, with two wildly eccentric characters finding comfort in each other through an improbable but funny series of circumstances which bind them together during a tour of Spain. They're the least organized of all the tourists, eventually getting away from the tour group to do some exploring on their own.And they're not the only eccentrics in the story. There's a wonderful scene where MAGGIE SMITH gets advances from a man who fancies himself a bird whistler and whose idea of a courtship is to present himself at her hotel room with his favorite bird on his shoulder. "I like fish," she tells him after a wacky scene where she has to put up all of her resistance against his pursuit of romance. Another funny sequence has a titled nobleman living in a castle making the same sort of attempt to lure Smith into a romantic liaison.But the film really belongs to the bewildering relationship between the repressed Maggie (who reveals later that she has a fatal illness), and the young man from a wealthy family of over-achievers who just wants to get away from family control over his destiny. He finds a kindred spirit in Smith but admits to her that she can be "a pain in the ass" at times. Both find themselves in a lot of foolish situations.All of it is done with expert timing from both leads who turn in finely nuanced performances amid some hysterically funny scenes that will have you gasping for breath at the absurdity of it all.Unfortunately, the script flounders badly toward the end and overall the story loses the satisfaction of some of the earlier moments in telling an unusual tale of a May/September romance. It could have used a bit more editing before release and never became a huge hit with the public.The color photography in Verona and Madrid is gorgeous, and the story benefits from a sense of humor that never lets up as we follow their misadventures across the Spanish landscape in rain and shine. All of the supporting performances are first rate.

I saw this movie many years ago and fell in love with it. I wish I could find it on VHS or DVD, It would make a great present to myself and my friend whom I saw it with. Any hopes for its release? I do have a very bad copy which was recorded from a cable station showing. Is it perhaps available under its original title "The Widower"? I only just recently learned that it was under another title. I have not seen the movie under its title The Widower so I do not know if it is exactly the same as Love and Pain or if there were changes made before its release. Perhaps Alan Pakula Productions could be persuaded to re-release this wonderful film? I'm sure if a vote was taken there would be a great number of people willing to purchase the film, making it profitable for Columbia Pictures.

This is a delightful film of coming of age, and coming to life. The one, a young man, suffocated by his blue-blood family, finds himself in the eyes of an older woman. And she, a not-quite-middle-aged spinster suffocated by her roles in life, is yearning for something to live for as she faces a final illness. He falls in love with her unaffected realism; and she with his boyish enthusiasm and unashamed wonder at the world. Together they struggle with what they see as a lack of tolerable options for such an odd couple; while learning more and more to depend on each other for much more than friendship. Together they discover Europe, and life, and each other, and themselves ... and bring us all a little more to life when they do.