By Mike Polanyk

Hollywood’s enduring love of cash cows is well documented but the British movie industry is just as fond of squeezing stuff until the pips squeak.

This is a touching if rather predictable story of an odd couple – a boy and an old man – facing life together, with the boy learning to live in the moment and the older man coming to terms with the past.

But hang on a sec, haven’t we been here before? Many, many times, of course; most recently with Peter O’Toole and Venus.

It’s a bittersweet portrait of a family slowly coming apart at the seams, as seen through the eyes of a lonely 10-year-old boy, which blends together themes of death, adultery, grief, Alzheimer’s, isolation and the supernatural.

A sleepy British seaside town, starved of colour, provides a suitably drab home for bookish tyke Edward (Bill Milner), who lives in the Lark Hall retirement home run by his parents (Anne-Marie Duff, David Morrissey).

Left to his own devices, he spends long periods with aging charmer Reg (Leslie Phillips), prim kleptomaniac Ena (Thelma Barlow) and despairing Lilian (Sylvia Syms, gawd bless her).

Edward is fascinated with the afterlife and secretly records the residents on his cassette player, hoping to capture the moment a soul leaves the body.

The boy’s solitude is interrupted with the arrival of grieving widower Clarence (Michael Caine), a retired magician who doesn’t suffer children gladly.

“Why are you so bloody morbid?’’ barks the old man. “Because I live here,’’ replies Edward sternly.

At first, the boy and the newcomer clash, but a dramatic incident brings them together, forging an unlikely friendship.

Edward persuades Clarence to revive his act one last time at his 11th birthday party. In return, the veteran helps to put the boy’s grievances into perspective.

“I used to have my own room with Paddington Bear wallpaper,’’ laments Edward.

“And I used to have a beautiful wife and all my own teeth,’’ responds Clarence sadly.

As the relationship deepens between two lost souls, they embark on a quest to confront the ghosts of the past.

John Crowley’s gentle movie is a throwback to times gone by, and not just because it reprises a familiar theme and strings it together with more familiar elements: Caine, Phillips, Syms; fading English seaside resorts.

Though it’s based on an original script by a young British writer Peter Harness, I got a distinct sense of deja vu with most of the scenes, and that rather spoiled the experience for me.

Caine is good as the fading magician, but like his performance in last year’s Flawless, it too feels formulaic and lacks nuance.

Rating: 3/5