In London, two marriages in crisis are presented. The first, which has already ended, is the forty year marriage of Alfie (Sir Anthony Hopkins) and Helena Shipridge (Gemma Jones). Alfie, who is going through a post-mid-life crisis, still sees himself as a young man, while he only sees Helena getting older. The second, which is slowly disintegrating, is the relatively young marriage in comparison of the Shipridges' daughter, Sally Channing (Naomi Watts), and her American author husband Ray Channing (Josh Brolin), their problems largely stemming from Ray's seeming inability to live up to the potential of his first novel, while earning a true wage to support him and Sally. With the Shipridges, Alfie only envisioned a new, energetic life with at least a young at heart partner. His life ends up being nothing as he suspects, that is until he meets Charmaine (Lucy Punch). However, he may not be able to see in Charmaine what the rest of the world sees in her. Helena knows that her life as she knew it is over with the divorce. She changes her tune when she starts seeing Cristal (Pauline Collins), a psychic who only seems to see positive things for her future, while only seeing the worst for Ray, who Cristal knows Helena does not like. With the Channings, their marital problems are only exacerbated by Helena's constant unannounced visits, she who seemingly needs not only to fill them in on any of Cristal's latest news of her/their life/lives, but drink them out of house and home. Ray, who has a medical degree, knows that he will never return to medicine as a career, despite the writing being stalled, and the time needed for the writing impinging on his ability to do any other work. The only thing that seems to give him any pleasure is watching the exotic young woman Dia (Freida Pinto) in red in a window across the courtyard. But he may sense fate is watching out for him with some tragic news, and Sally has returned to work putting her art history background to use in working in the art gallery owned by Greg Clemente (Antonio Banderas). This employee status is far away from what was her original professional dream of owning her own gallery, which she was planning on opening when Ray made his writing fortune. But Sally slowly begins to realize that the more her marriage seems to be deteriorating, the more she desires married Greg. As each of Alfie, Helena, Ray, and Sally pursue their dreams and desires, the illusion may be more palatable than reality.—Huggo