Supposed to be a romantic comedy, or Joel Hopkins, writer and director's idea of an emotional flick, we have wonderful actors like Dustin Hoffman, 71, and Oscar-winning Emma Thompson, 49, of 'Howards End', who also wrote the screen play for 'Sense and Sensibility', wasted in a film like 'Last Chance Harvey '.

Kate (Thompson) is a vital, attractive, intelligent 40-something, who works at Heathrow airport in London , getting passengers to fill out surveys, while Harvey (Hoffman) a once aspiring jazz pianist, who now writes jingles for commercials is in the United States . Hopkins , being a man assumes, because Kate has no man in her life, her life must be dull, drab and lonely life. Which is why, he foists a depressive, self-pitying elderly man (Hoffman), a man who has screwed up his entire life, as her love interest. Both Thompson and Hoffman are watchable and immensely engaging, however, they don't look right as a couple, more interesting in their separate scenes than together.

Taking pains to establish the emptiness of Kate's life, it is scenes of Kate foraying into the dating world that are the most affecting, as Thompson lends a dignified sadness and fullness of emotion to her portrayal of Kate. But, it takes more time to figure out Harvey , even though he is played by as vivid an actor as Hoffman. Everyone's object of contempt, treated like a disposable relic by his employer, he meets Kate when he goes to London for his daughter's marriage.

A sheer waste of superb talent, Thompson's role is to feed lines to Hoffman's character, who indulges in witless banter meant to charm Kate, banter that won Ginger Rogers for Fred Astaire, but Thompson is far too smart for that. After all, in the 1950s and '60s, her late father, Eric Thompson, was a familiar face on British television, while her mother (Phyllida Law) and sister (Sophie Thompson) are well-known stage and film performers.

Your enjoyment of 'Last Chance Harvey' depends soley on whether you can take a down to his last chance Harvey, who is not worth Kate even if he were 20-years younger reducing her to a choice between lifelong solitude and an aging loser.