The Government is always nagging us to save for our retirement, but there are plenty of old people who did and still lost out due to financial crashes and fund failures.
GOLDEN YEARS
Director: John Miller
Cast: Bernard Hill, Virginia McKenna, Phil Davis, Simon Callow, Una Stubbs, Alun Armstrong, Sue Johnston, Brad Moore, Nigel Allen
Rating: (M)
Four stars (out of five)
When Golden Years starts, Arthur (Bernard Hill) thinks he and his wife Martha are all right but disturbing things are happening to their friends.
Royston (Simon Callow) and Shirley (Una Stubbs) are having to do a bit of belt tightening because of bad financial advice.
A visit to his bank manager about trying to raise a loan to keep his bowling club afloat ends with the news that his pension fund has gone bankrupt and the best the bank can offer is to take his house off him.
A reeling Arthur stumbles out of the bank and into the arms of the security guard delivering the bank’s cash top-up and a plan is born.
Before you know it, Arthur and Martha are doing a stately homes tour with a spot of bank robbing on the side.
The bowls club gets a cash injection; Royston and Shirley get a letter from the pools asking them to claim their winnings, even though they don’t play; and Brian (Phil Davis) gets a grant to keep his workshop going.
It’s the perfect victimless crime and they seem to be getting away with it but the police are closer than they think and they need to pull off one last job.
There is a lot of quality acting talent involved in this movie and that is what keeps it going.
The performances pull you through even when you fail to believe the plot.
- Christine Powley
