Any film with Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips as Maurice and Ian, two eccentric veterans of the stage, old friends who josh each other in semi-retirement, ought at least to have a modicum of entertainment in it.

And Roger Michell and Hanif Kureishi's comedy about the awkward late autumn of life, when you can't do what you'd like to and don't like doing what you can, certainly has that.

O'Toole and Phillips know exactly how to make the most of good lines and how to mask poor dialogue. And it isn't their fault that this curious mixture of sentimentality and sharpness ends up seeming more than a trifle glib.

It's partly because, in trying for something deeper than facile and rather patronising laughs at aged cantankerousness, neither the writing nor direction are quite up to it.

The arrival from the provinces of Jessie (Jodie Whittaker), Ian's pretty grand-niece, who proves hopeless at looking after him, prompts Ian to scream but Maurice to take a kinder view of the girl.

He sets out to show her the cultural sights of London and, in doing so, grows fond of rather more than her innocent nature. She allows him a few liberties but gives him a good dig in the ribs if he starts to grope.

Vanessa Redgrave plays his presumably estranged wife and the straightest of bats throughout as Maurice falls deeper and deeper before realising that he can't and shouldn't win this particular game of love.

The film slides queasily around in this emotional and sexual morass until it finally comes to rest as the Grim Reaper beckons and the girl learns that Maurice has taught her a bit about life.

But even performances as good as these - and one would certainly include Whittaker as well as the two better-known stars - can't transcend material that hovers between near farce and tragi-comedy without ever landing on a convincing level. Just to watch its actors, however, may well suffice for some.