Meryl Streep is a wonder, let's start right there. After her towering portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, an ordinary woman in real danger of disappearing all together. Real and enormously moving. Tommy Lee Jones gives us a face we hadn't seen before. Someone so settled in his ways that he doesn't notice what's happening around him. That's why, I though, his realization is so poignant. The film is based on a solid script but the direction is sluggish and uncertain to say the least. It feels as if the director didn't trust his material. The songs and the score, out of a Lifetime TV movie, doesn't allow us to connect with the real truths unfolding in the screen. That, I must confess, was very annoying. I recommend the film on the strength of the two central performances. Intimacy between two grown ups reflected on every look on every move until the score comes to interfere and derail our emotions.

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold Soames (Tommy Lee Jones) are an empty nest couple whose marriage has grown cold. He is in denial, but she decides to seek help. They start a week long counseling retreat with Dr. Feld (Steve Carell) which she found from reading his book. It becomes a grown up serious battle for their marriage.

Steve Carell is cast as a serious doctor. There are no quirky quips. This is a straight performance. And it's uncomfortably odd to take him seriously. It is not a fitting role for him. We have 2 veteran actors here doing battle. They are working hard here. The sessions get very emotional. Psychiatric sessions are never my favorite movie scenes, and this one was very rocky. It gets very uncomfortable.

Well if you want to see Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones about to copulate, then this is the film for you. Others might find it off putting especially when we get to see a close up of Lee Jones hound dog face.

Kay (Meryl Streep) and Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) have been married for 31 years. They have not had sex for almost 5 years, even sleeping in separate bedrooms rather far apart.

Arnold is a tax accountant, he likes golf and watching shows about golf, she is a homemaker but the kids have grown up and gone away. Kay knowing that her sexual needs are not being satisfied decides to book a week long intensive counselling sessions with the renowned therapist and author Dr Feld (Steve Carell) in a small Maine town.

Carrell is very serious as a therapist, realising that this is a married couple who is not even in the field to play the game and sensing Kay's unhappiness. Lee Jones finds it easy as the curmudgeon, set in his ways which means he has got used to the sex tap being off.

It is a shame that both Lee Jones and Streep who were in their 60s when this film was made are not convincing as people who are supposedly in their early to mid 50s.

The film is billed as a romantic comedy of a middle aged married couple trying to find their spark. It is more a tragi comedy of marital frustrations. The problem is how Lee Jones character is portrayed, he is never convincing as someone who wants therapy and has become comfortable with his non sex life. The screenplay is basically Arnold reluctantly going along with the marriage guidance and then complaining incessantly about it.