Maggie Smith's follow-up to her 1969 Best Actress Oscar win has her playing an eccentric woman who appears at her sister's funeral & befriends her uptight, by the book nephew. Intrigued by the woman's flights of fancy, he follows her on a whirlwind travelogue of European locales which only serve her purposes since she is collecting a ransom to free a once & ever lover from when she was younger. Directed by George Cukor (probably one of his last efforts) but never really hitting the ground running, this lively tale needed someone like Stanley Donen (who got a second wind to his career in the 60's making offbeat caper/comedies like Charade/Arabesque) or Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night/Help) to bake this souffle to perfection but as it is, the mood & storytelling are at odds w/each other, never engendering any sympathy or pathos from the viewer.
Review of Travels with My Aunt
