Thoroughly charming! Jill Clayburgh masterfully plays another savvy, divorced woman attempting to date again, and though some viewers may say she has mined this territory before, Clayburgh absolutely nails the love/hate relationship fifty-somethings have with getting back into the swing of things (sometimes it's much more enticing to just sit home and mope). After a blind date goes south, Jill unintentionally winds up in a gay bar with her girlfriends and they decide 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 tells her he's open to "experimenting" and thinks she's a transsexual, she finds the situation amusing). Writer-director Eric Schaeffer loves a good cliché, and he doesn't mind playing up the storybook aspects of this wacky romance, however the film does fall into a predictable pattern (they meet, they fall in love, they fight, etc.). Still, when the writing is this delicious, and the cast is so attuned to the straight-forward, occasionally barbed material, the results can be joyous. While Clayburgh mixes her playful, feisty bit with a more serious, defensive undercurrent (and succeeds beautifully), Jeffrey Tambor is the revelation here. Too often cast in sitcoms as a dunderhead or buffoon, Tambor displays wonderfully dry comic timing--and the embittered quality of his character is never off-putting (we can sympathize). Tambor seems to have no notion of what a handsome lug he is, and his aw-shucks shuffling and nervous body language is that much more appealing because of it. 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). Despite some comically 'shocking' scenes, the film isn't about sexual humiliation (thank God), and Schaeffer wants these two to be together as much as we do. It's a hip, sassy affair that should resonate with a lot of folks over forty. *** from ****