Love blossoms when two lonely people least expect it in writer-director Joel Hopkins’ gently paced and incredibly charming romance, set in bustling, modern-day London.

Admittedly, you may need a very sweet tooth to swallow some of the saccharine sentiment, and the central narrative thread doesn’t have a single unexpected knot before the feel-good conclusion.

However, the sensational pairing of Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson adds polish to very familiar material.

When they share the screen, rather awkwardly and sometimes hilariously grappling with their characters’ feelings, we are hopelessly smitten.

Having lost his job, middle-aged jingle writer Harvey (Hoffman) flies into the capital to reconnect with his estranged daughter Susan (Liane Balaban) in time for her wedding.

To add insult to injury, her stepfather Brian (Josh Brolin) will proudly walk her down the aisle.

At the airport, Harvey briefly encounters survey-taker Kate (Emma Thompson) and rudely dodges her questioning, like so many other passengers.

When he sees Kate sitting alone in the airport bar, reading a trashy novel over a glass of Chardonnay, Harvey apologises profusely and strikes up a conversation, which sparks a friendship.

They journey across the city together and Harvey offers to carry Kate’s books, which she needs for a creative writing course.

‘Lovely, mild-mannered Mike gave us the latest instalment of his psycho-sexual thriller.

He’s 86!’ she later tells her American friend.

With Susan’s nuptials fresh in his mind, Harvey asks Kate to be his guest and they head for the reception at the Savoy Hotel, where the former jingle writer must face his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and his inadequacies as a parent.

Last Chance Harvey is a delightful surprise, navigating the turbulent waters of Harvey and Kate’s amour with aplomb.

Hoffman is endearing as a man worn down by life, who blunders from one misfortune to the next only to stumble upon the person who could change his life forever.

Thompson is spellbinding, too, as a spinster who has sacrificed her happiness to take care of her meddlesome mother Maggie (Eileen Atkins), including a heartbreaking blind date in a pub.

Screen chemistry between the two leads simmers and we believe entirely that the characters could fall for one another, as much as they try to ignore or resist it.

Hopkins does strike a few false notes, like when Kate agrees to accompany Harvey to the Savoy, only to realise she isn’t dressed for the occasion.

‘I can’t go to a wedding reception in green polyester!’ she laments, cuing a musical montage of Kate trying on various dresses as Harvey shows his (dis)approval, which belongs in a teen coming-of-age story.

Similarly, a subplot with Maggie and her immigrant neighbour (Robert Jezek), whom she suspects to be ‘Poland’s answer to Jack The Ripper’, is inconsequential fluff.

• Release Date: Friday 5 June 2009
• Certificate: 12A
• Runtime: 93mins

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