The idea of a love affair between two 54 year olds who are determined never to fall in love again certainly makes for an interesting and usable premise. Having them meet in a gay bar because the male half of the couple thinks he might be gay and the woman happens to be there also (who knows why), and he mistakes her for a transvestite, etc., is as phony and unpersuasive a plot device as I ever remember encountering in a film that wasn't made for 10-year-olds or for fans of horror films. If they'd met in some "normal" fashion and if the director/scriptwriter hadn't also pressed the wrong buttons by having her 18-year-old daughter walk in on them while he's under the covers examining her nether parts close up and by having her modeling porn shop sex tools when he brings her mother visiting and if, if, if.....this could have been a reasonably good movie. Jill Clayburgh is a handsome woman of a certain age, and while Jeffrey Tambor will never be mistaken for Brad Pitt, it's possible for women to fall in love with fat little bald guys too. As it is, "Never Again" is mildly -- very mildly -- entertaining, assuming you aren't offended by the most sexually explicit language I've ever encountered in a movie. But it's certainly no "Harry Meets Sally" for an older generation as it's been advertised. Most of the intended humor is far too strenuous and improbable to be seriously funny. So there's much more wrong than right about this movie. But Bill Duke is splendid as Tambor's lifelong friend and bass-playing jazz partner and Clayburgh and Tambor do reasonably good jobs when they aren't asked to do something utterly ridiculous. Someone ought to confiscate Eric Schaeffer's pen and director's chair, however.He's entirely responsible for butchering the premise.

In New York, Grace (Jill Clayburgh) and Christopher (Jeffrey Tambor) are two lonely souls of fifty and something years old. Jill has not had sex for seven years, and the straight Christopher is very insecure with his masculinity. Both of them have made a promise in the past that they would never fall in love again. When they meet each other, they have a very complicated affair and of course in the end they fall in love for each other. This irregular low budget movie explores an important theme completely disregarded by Hollywood: sex after fifty years old. The story looks like a "Sex and the City" of middle-aged women and has many good jokes and situations. The problem is the trailer released by the distributor. I saw it a couple of days ago, and it shows the best parts of the story, spoiling the funny situations. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Coisas do Amor" ("Things About Love")

Having been a Jill Clayburgh fan since she was being gently tugged around by her nipples in "An Unmarried Woman,' I decided to give this movie a try despite the universally awful reviews it received. Well, 1978 was then and this is now and Ms. Clayburgh's chest is thankfully kept under cover. Unfortunately, that's about the only humiliation she and the rest of the cast are spared in this unqualified disaster. In fairness to the director, he was working with a wretched screenplay but that's because Eric Schaeffer is a hack writer *and* director.The sole believable moment in this entire film is a scene where Grace (Clayburgh) berates Christopher (Jeffrey Tambor) in a restaurant. It shows what a fine actress she is and highlights how badly she is wasted in this schlock. Christopher is an exterminator who plays jazz piano at night. Yeah, right. He's basically Hank Kingsley with some piano lessons and an African American friend named Earl (Bill Duke in a thankless role). Earl is the only sane character in this bomb which makes it highly unlikely that he'd have someone like Christopher as a friend. In fact, there is no conceivable reason for anyone in this film to behave in the incredibly contrived ways they doDesperate attempts at hilarious hijinks involving a strap-on dildo and a suit of armor land with a dull thud. In a sad attempt at farce, Schaeffer has instead produced a travesty. Hopefully the title of this misbegotten mess will serve as fitting epitaph to his career. And if Jill Clayburgh needs money this bad, please advise her to lay off the crack and give me a call; I'll send her a check. Finally, we have Sandy Duncan. Yes, *that* Sandy Duncan. Talking about sex. I rest my case.

A romantic farce with complications. The movie loves its over-50 characters yet presents them behaving ridiculously in outrageous situations.Core to "Never Again" is the perspective and experience of liberated, divorced, over-50 women with sexual relationships. These are presumed and exemplified without being examined. Under 25 women, even the heroine's daughter, show themselves to be inert, callow dolts. Their parents live vivid lives with humor and pain, joy and despair, wit and incredulity, dignity and abnegation. So the generational roles are reversed from the usual teenage romantic comedy; that will keep a lot of viewers away. Additionally, the movie frankly talks and pictures frank abundant and diverse sex, which will keep a lot of over-25 women away.The movie's topic, two individuals in a romantic relationship, interests woman most, but structurally the movie is presented as symmetrical among the genders, with an early alternation between the lives and concerns of its male and female leads. Further, both have friends who are core to the movie: the other half of a jazz duet in the case of Christopher and two close gabbies for Grace. In the end, though, "women do more of everything," as Christopher's buddy says, and our hero confesses to Grace that "you were right about everything," so we are back to women-centric starting place.Curiously, the words do not match the deeds portrayed. While Grace complains (and we are supposed to agree) that Christopher has a standard Madonna/whore complex about women, nothing of the sort is pictured. Rather, the relationship starts in sex, and he comes to love and appreciate her fully through what is revealed in sex and develops as part of sex. Again, while Christopher supposedly fears intimacy, no fear is actually shown -- he relishes intimacy and honesty (and has a male friendship exemplifying these) and the under 25 women bore him because they offer neither. Instead, threats to the relationship come from the constraints of social context -- the daughter, the friends, and the social demands to be insincere and superficial. When these press in, Christopher starts having second thoughts.Claybaugh is outstanding -- I haven't laughed so hard in years as I did at her strap-on scene. What would the part look like performed with less skill and charm? Unpleasant, perhaps. Grace carelessly injures her daughter, her friends, and her boyfriend whenever things don't go exactly her way. The farce, the happy ending, the acting, and the perspective all move attention away from the heroine's actual problems. She is brave, inventive and winsome, and we over-50 males are happy to fall in love with her.