I bought this for my cousin's Christmas present because she and I both love the three principal actors. Since it was a gently used dvd, I watched it myself before I mailed it to her. Fabulous. a young James Spader with a mop of hair and a tendency to fall over obstacles is simply hilarious and he nearly manages to compete with those two inveterate scene stealers, Michael Caine and Maggie Smith.
The storyline reminds me of the old Topper tv series. This is light comedy, almost as light as a sponge cake from the Great British Baking Show. Great fun!
Down through the years I have simply adored Dame Maggie Smith especially in her forays into comedy. I really believe that she is one of the funniest actresses on earth. Just one look or one line delivered can send me into hysterics. This film "Curtain Call" is certainly not the greatest film on screen but WHO CARES it has Maggie Smith and Michael Caine "bouncing" off each other in very amusing ways. Yes, when they are on the screen, in this movie, I laughed out loud many, many times.
This 93 minute, made in 1997 film, to me, is, at best, merely mediocre with no "stand out" acting; however, I derived a great deal of pleasure whenever Maggie Smith and Michael Caine were on screen playing ghosts from the 1920s that have been married for a long time and feud a lot but love each other a lot. Their duels make one laugh out loud with Maggie delivering, in her wonderful way, some very funny lines.
In light of the above, if you want to spend 93 minutes of your time watching a non-challenging movie that is free of any gratuitous violence, sex or nudity and, most of all, has two veterans (Maggie and Michael) that illuminate the screen whenever they appear, buy this film,