“AGE IS JUST A NUMBER” HAS been my motto as long as I have been able to understand what it means to me. When I was a small kid, I played with older and younger kids in the neighborhood. None of us questioned anyone’s age; all that mattered was if you had an enjoyable time playing together. With my schooling, from elementary through college, I always befriended students who were not of my year. In college, when I was a first-year student, I became good friends with a graduate student. In fact, I mentioned him in an earlier review about the college friend who taught me how to play ping pong. We were friends all through my college years and after. It is more important to me to have a faithful friend who is trustworthy, loyal, and supportive than someone who is not but the same age. Some years ago, I had a good friend that asked me to be the best man at his wedding; he felt that close to me. All was good since we had been friends for almost ten years. A year after the wedding the whole wedding party met up at the same place the wedding took place. The only difference was I and one other member of the bridal party brought the people we were dating at the time. My friend took an immediate dislike to my partner because they were fourteen years younger than me. He never came out and said it that way but made rude comments about them being immature to understand what was going on. I was so offended, especially when I asked them to explain their behavior and they simply said they did not like who I was dating. Our friendship ended on that trip.      THOUGH THAT RELATIONSHIP DID NOT LAST past five years, age was never an issue between us. Our tastes and interests were similar, we loved each other and always had a fun time when we were together; age was only an issue for those around us. I just remembered something else about that relationship. We were at a family function and a relative made the comment “act your age.” We looked at each other and wondered if she was referring to us, but my relative was saying that regarding a different issue. However, that saying has always annoyed me because I never understood what it meant for someone to act their age. Is a seventy-five-year-old riding a roller coaster acting their age? Is a fourteen-year-old going to college acting their age? I find that saying has no relevance to anything anyone chooses to do. Plus, I would like to know how someone doing something that a person feels is not age appropriate, affects that opinionated person. In my dating history, I dated people who were 19 years younger than me and twenty years older. I never saw it as being odd and that is why I had no issue watching this dramatic, comedy romance.      FROM A CHANCE ENCOUNTER, A FORTY-year-old single mother begins a romance with the lead singer of a band, who is twenty-four years old. Not only would the press have a field day with the age difference, the pressures of being in the spotlight would have an affect on the mother, daughter, and everyone else around them. With Anne Hathaway (The Witches, Locked Down) as Solene, Nicolas Galitzine (Purple Hearts; Red, White & Royal Blue) as Hayes, Ella Rubin (The Rewrite, The Sweet East) as Izzy, Annie Mumolo (Bad Moms, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as Tracy and Reid Scott (Veep-TV, Wildflower) as Daniel; this film had its moments. I thought the acting was good and appreciated how the writers put a spotlight on the age differences. With a steady hand of directing, I only wished the script would have dug down deeper into feelings and emotions. It would have helped with the chemistry between the two main stars and added more punch to the story. Though I thought the way the writers wrote the characters of the ex-husband, and his girlfriend were typical, I liked how it showed the prejudices between males and females with younger partners. Overall, I enjoyed this film because of the acting and more so for the topic.

2 ¾ stars