Playing another in her gallery of savvy, acerbic divorced women attempting to date again, Jill Clayburgh effortlessly proves she's still got it. After a blind date goes south, Jill unintentionally winds up in a gay bar with her girlfriends and decides to make a night of it; luckily, exterminator/part-time jazz musician Jeffrey Tambor has also wandered in and the two singles 'meet cute' (he thinks she's a transsexual and tells her he's open to "experimenting", she finds the situation amusing). Clayburgh absolutely nails the love/hate relationship 50-somethings have with getting back into the swing of things (sometimes it's much more enticing to sit home and do nothing). Writer-director Eric Schaeffer loves a good cliché, and he doesn't mind playing up the storybook aspects of this wacky romance, yet some of his writing here is deliciously silly before the film falls into a predictable pattern in its iffy third-act. Tambor, a handsome lug with wonderful comic timing, never allows the bitterness of his character to become off-putting. He's thoughtful and deep (and troubled) but also an old-fashioned romantic at heart, and Clayburgh's salty, sneaky wit brings out the best in him (he's dry, she's wry). A hip, sassy love affair for folks over 40. **1/2 from ****
Review of Never Again
