Life is a journey, not a destination, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. All of us experience pain, disbelief, betrayal and sorrow. For most, these soul wrenching times are balanced by joy, love, peace and happy times.

In the film, “My Old Lady,” opening tonight, Friday, Oct. 10, Mathias Gold, portrayed by Kevin Kline, the journey has manifested more pain than peace.

Gold is a down and out, thrice-divorced unsuccessful playwright from New York. He inherits a Paris apartment from a father he has been emotionally and physically estranged from for most of his 57 years. He comes to Paris intent on selling it.

He arrives at the apartment to find Mathilde Girard (Dame Maggie Smith) and her daughter Chloé (Kristin Scott Thomas) in residence. He is quickly brought up to speed on the terms of his newly inherited dwelling: the two women live there because the apartment is a viager. A what?

A viager is a centuries old French real estate arrangement in which a property is sold to a buyer at less than the going rate, but the seller remains in the home, and is paid a monthly rent, until the seller's death.

In this case, Gold, now the owner, must pay 2,400 euros a month to Mdme Girard until she passes on, which, could be anytime (she is 92 — yes, he asks but she lies and says 90). Toasting during dinner (precisely at 8 p.m.) on his first night at the apartment, Madame says, “Precision is the key to a long life ... Precision and wine.” Gold, a recovering alcoholic toasts with water.

This is just one of the mind blowing truths he discovers in Paris. The others, far more devastating to the man-boy he is, make for a complex leg of his life's journey.

Mathias is determined to find a way to sell the apartment, and in the meantime, find a way to pay the 2,400 rent. He brings a number of photographs of the apartment to a real estate agent, emphasizing its large garden. He learns it would go for 12 million euros — if he could find a buyer willing to enter a viager arrangement.

Madame's daughter Chloe is naturally at odds with Mathias from the beginning (they meet when he opens the door on her on the toilet). The apartment, it turns out, had been in the Girard family since her great-grandparents’ day.

Chloe tells Mathias the only reason her mother sold it to his father was to keep it out of the hands of a developer. Ironically, Mathias will end up expecting an offer from the son of that same developer.

To pay his rent, Kline begins selling furniture from the apartment. And it is while he is busy snapping pics of items he comes upon a photo album in a bookcase. Let the revelations begin!

Audiences will delight in the scenes of Paris. It truly is one beautiful city. One scene, in particular, that this reviewer enjoyed, has Gold singing spontaneously with a wandering opera singer he happens upon.

Rather unexpected, rather unusual for the character, but at this point in the film, he is in post-catharsis mode when we can express ourselves in surprising ways, no?

Kline and Scott Thomas share a couple powerful scenes, I can't say more than that without giving a few things away; and Dame Maggie is, as always, spot on.

If you are someone who requires a fast moving script and prefer lighthearted fare, this film is not for you. If, however, you are one who loves to lose yourself in a story and in the shoes of each character, you will enjoy “My Old Lady.”

It is all about the journey.

The film plays all weekend: Friday, Oct. 10 and Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. and at 3 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12 at the Harbor Theatre at 185 Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. For more information, call 207-633-0438.