MOVIE REVIEWS : Traditional, Hearty Fare at This ‘Bed & Breakfast’

“Bed & Breakfast” (at the Beverly Center Cineplex), a gentle film of warmth and humor, happily suggests that for Roger Moore there is life after retiring from playing James Bond. Moore’s waist has thickened a bit, but there’s still a devilish twinkle in his eye. A durable charmer, he’s ideally cast as a mystery man washed up on the beach at a lovely but shabby old estate on the Maine coast.

The rambling, shingled turn-of-the-century house belongs to Ruth (the late Colleen Dewhurst), who helps her daughter-in-law Claire (Talia Shire) and granddaughter Cassie (Nina Siemaszko) in the losing battle to operate their home as a bed and breakfast. Claire is a very different woman from her earthy, lusty mother-in-law, who’s taking no pleasure in turning 65. We learn by piecemeal, as does Moore’s Adam, that Claire for 10 years has been fervently playing the keeper of the flame to her late husband, a Kennedyesque senator of much charisma (and many reported liaisons). Claire is uptight, trying to control the 16-year-old Cassie, a budding violinist eager to fly the coop. Claire is reflexively a killjoy with her daughter, and she’s appalled at taking in a stranger, sensing that Adam is a shady type.

Ah, but Adam is so smooth, so delightful and so willing to work as a handyman in return for room and board. He’s even got ideas about how to make the bed and breakfast start turning a profit.

There’s absolutely nothing original here, there’s lots that’s theatrical and there certainly are contrivances in the plotting. There is, in fact, an aura of the synthetic about the story, but it keeps breaking through to genuine emotion. That’s because Cindy Myers’ script allows director Robert Ellis Miller to deal from his strengths, which are illuminating relationships within intimate dramas and eliciting finely shaded characterizations from his actors. As in his best films, “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” and “Reuben, Reuben,” Miller is skilled at involving us in his people and making us care about them. “Bed & Breakfast” offers the simple pleasure of observing believably everyday people--Claire in particular--trying to sort out their lives.

Shire gets right inside Claire, a woman who means well but is so much in the thrall of the past she seems constantly making the wrong moves with her daughter. Yet there’s no question that love exists between mother and daughter; they do know how to apologize, kiss and make up. Although Adam is frankly Ruth’s contemporary--and she’s not at all shy in sizing him up--he gradually commences to have an impact on Claire, making her come alive in spite of herself.

Inevitably, the mystery about Adam--who is he really, what has happened to him and why?--is going to be dealt with, for “Bed & Breakfast” is a solidly traditional romantic comedy-drama, with a beginning, middle and end. Moore shines in the debonair Adam’s moment of truth, even though Adam’s history is essentially a device to maneuver him onto Ruth’s property and into Claire’s heart. “Bed & Breakfast” (rated PG-13 for some language and discreetly presented adult situations) is as good-looking as its cast, thanks to cinematographer Peter Sova, and David Shire’s score is spare but breaks into romantic flourishes at all the right moments.

‘Bed & Breakfast’

Roger Moore: Adam

Talia Shire; Claire

Colleen Dewhurst: Ruth

Nina Siemaszko: Cassie

A Hemdale Pictures presentation. Director Robert Ellis Miller. Producer Jack Schwartzman. Screenplay Cindy Myers. Cinematographer Peter Sova. Editor John F. Burnett. Costumes Jennifer von Mayrhauser. Music David Shire. Production design Suzanne Cavedon. Art director Ron Wilson. Set decorator Tracey Doyle. Sound Mike Rowland. Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (some language, discreetly presented adult situations).