Life is falling apart for Harvey Shine (Hoffman), who writes jingles but is about to be told he is no longer wanted. His personal life is a mess too. Divorced, he is pretty much estranged from his daughter, who is about to be married in London and he goes there for the wedding. The daughter, played sympathetically by Liane Balaban, has nothing against him but she has become close to her stepfather (James Brolin), whom she has asked to give her away. Harvey is distraught at the news.

Hoffman is excellent in portraying the hurt he feels. Meanwhile, we have been getting a parallel portrait of Kate (Thompson), who is in her forties, attractive but independent minded, full of defenses and the sort of person who doesn’t take to relationships easily. She is cool at a blind date, arranged by a colleague who works with her for the Office of National Statistics. She also looks after her demanding mother (Eileen Atkins), of which the film makes too much—constant phone calls on Kate’s cell and the mother thinking a killer has moved in next door, an aside that the film could do without.

Hoffman has rudely passed Kate who was soliciting travelers with questions at the airport, but they meet cute in an airport bar when Hoffman misses his flight back to the states. There’s a spark, partly because of his sense of humor that appeals to her, and also because he shows he can listen to a woman. She’s tall, he’s short and although they look like an unlikely couple, they hit it off little by little. He wasn’t planning to go to the wedding reception, but Kate talks some sense into him, and he persuades her to go along.

Hoffman does a wonderful job of building up to getting nerve enough to assert his fatherly presence at the reception in a most touching way that pays off from his gradual acting buildup (the seasoned pro at work). His life promises to open up and he and Kate are on track for a romance that could be liberating to both.