The last time Robert Redford and Jane Fonda starred together in a movie, The Electric Horseman, I was only a kid but I knew both actors were big film stars.

Now in the twilight of their career Redford and Fonda come together in the screen once more in Our Souls at Night and you can sense that these two people are comfortable with each other, after all this is the fourth film they have made together.

This is a low key, no frills film set in a small Colorado town. Fonda plays Addie Moore, a widow who just wants companionship especially at night. One night she knocks on Louis Waters (Redford) door and makes a proposition that they just share a bed together but nothing sexual. Waters is also widowed and lonely. Although both have lived near each other for years the families were never close and he considers her proposal and takes her up on it.

Louis is worried about small time gossip which is led by his friends in the coffee shop, Dorlan (Bruce Dern) teases him which makes Lois feel uncomfortable.

As the film progresses so does their relationship and the backstory. Addie lost a child to a hit and run accident. Louis meanwhile had cheated on his wife, the infidelity caused ructions in his relationship with his family.

When Addie's grown up son Gene (Matthias Schoenaerts) has marital and business issues, he drops off his son Jamie (Iain Armitage) to stay with her for a short while. This is the catalyst that brings both Louis and Addie closer, although Gene makes his dislike of Louis very clear.

This is a simple albeit a slow autumnal drama with no histrionics. Director Ritesh Batra knows that he just needs his legendary actors to light up the screen. The Belgian actor Schoenaerts feels miscast, Dern is a hoot in his cameo as the chief gossip and Armitage shows what a rising talent he is as Fonda's grandson.

I found out about this film on a Channel 5 about "shocking moments" of the year, and I'm not surprised its title caused an uproar, especially when it was released on Netflix in the UK. In the British pronunciation, it does sound like "a***holes at night", so many complaints were sent to have the title changed, but Netflix responded that it had no intention of retitling the film. So, we could all continue to have a giggle at this, but I was hoping it would actually be an enjoyable film as well. Basically, in the small Colorado city of Holt, Louis Waters (Robert Redford, also producing) is a lonely widower, living next door to Addie Moore (Jane Fonda),also a lonely widow herself. They have been neighbours for many years but know almost nothing about each other. One night, Addie visits Louis to ask if he would consider sleeping together, non-sexually, to help comfort each other's loneliness and perhaps improve their sleep. Louis is initially hesitant, but after considering it he agrees that they should give it a try. They spend their first night together at Addie's house and she falls asleep quickly before Louis tries to make small talk. This continues for a few nights, and Louis and Addie feel more comfortable with each other, having small talk. Slowly, as they open up to each other, including about their previous relationships, that find a connection with each other. Friends of Louis's tease him about his relationship Addie, as they are seen out and about with each other also, but he tries to ignore them. Louis's daughter Holly (Judy Greer) also questions where he is when she calls the house, but he decides not to tell her the truth, as he worries she will not understand. At the start of the summer, Addie's son Gene (Matthias Schoenaerts) has had his marriage fall apart and drops off his son Jamie (Young Sheldon's Iain Armitage) at her house so he can sort out his situation. Jamie spends the entire summer with Louis and Addie, who also adopt a dog for Jamie. When Gene returns at the end of summer, he confronts Addie about her relationship with Louis, which he disapproves of, because of Louis' past affair. But Addie refuses to break off the relationship. Sometime later, Addie is hospitalised after a fall. Gene tries to persuade her to move in with him, which Addie initially refuses. However, when she receives a phone call from a distressed Jamie in the middle of the night, she reconsiders. When she and Louis arrive at the house, they find Gene drunk, confessing he has always believed that Addie blamed him for his sister's death. She decides that family must come first and decides to move in with Gene and Jamie. Addie and Louis spend their last night together. After this, they are both back to sleeping alone. Louis sends her a train set that they talked previously, along with a cell-phone. After getting into bed, Addie calls Louis, and they start talking as old friends. Also starring Phyllis Somerville as Ruth, and Bruce Dern as Dorlan Becker. Redford and Fonda make a sweet and believable enough developing couple as they sleep in the same bed and eventually snuggle up to each other, it is simple but effective, a worthwhile romantic drama. Jane Fonda was number 98, and Robert Redford number 61 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars. Good!

An elderly man, sitting alone at a four-person table in his dining area, eats his dinner surrounded by silence, staring at nothing. This quick opening sequence is movie-shorthand for character exposition (the man is a widower--probably for a while now--in an obvious rut, still eating supper at the same time every night, in the same chair, just as he would if his wife were alive),and I feared the worst. Luckily, this script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, adapting Kent Haruf's novel, proves to be a solid job of writing. Robert Redford plays the widower who no sooner sits down with his newspaper before he gets a surprise visit from down-the-street neighbor and widow Jane Fonda, an acquaintance of his late wife's. She proposes an initially-puzzling proposition: since they are both alone--and lonely, she presumes--and she has a hard time sleeping anyway, why don't they spend their nights together, platonically, in the same bed? It takes Redford a day to consider it, and their first sleepover is awkward, but soon the strangeness wears off and the couple comes to cherish their not-so-secret, non-intimate evenings. Sensitive study of small town lives, old wounds, family problems, loss, greetings and farewells, is tenderly and astutely rendered. This handsomely-shot film for Netflix may be criticized for being too polite, too tasteful, but you come to want the best for these people, even in the midst of life's big and small messes. The dialogue is vivid--amazingly so--and the supporting cast is uniformly excellent. This is the finest effort from either Redford or Fonda in many years; together, they provide a lovely duet.