Stanley Cox (Robert DeNiro) is a great guy. He is kind-hearted, loyal, a hard worker, totally honest and intelligent. He is also kindly to his aging father whom he must put into a nursing home. There is only one problem. He can't read or write. That apparently happened because he slept through school and nobody bothered to wake him up, assuming he was just another dummy with no future ahead of him. That is until Iris King (Jane Fonda) comes along. This hard-working factory worker, a widow with a troubled family, takes an interest in his plight, and takes it upon herself to teach him how to read and write, falling in love in the process while getting over the memory of her late husband.

There is really little plot and not a sensible reason as to why Stanley has never learned to read and write. When Iris accidentally costs Stanley his job by revealing to his boss the truth about him, you really don't believe that she wouldn't stand up and fight for him. Stanley isn't an innocent like Dustin Hoffman's character in "Rain Man" or dim-witted like Lon Chaney's character in "Of Mice and Men"; He is a normal "Joe" whom I just couldn't believe would never leave his neighborhood or be able to purchase anything if he can't read or write, let alone count money or know what denomination he is giving a cashier. There is little information on how he has survived up until then, and that is where the film looses credibility.

Where it becomes entertaining is that the two characters are totally likable. It is very interesting to see these two Oscar Winning stars together in spite of the fact that Fonda publicly denounced "The Deer Hunter", the Oscar Winning Vietnam film from 1978 that starred DeNiro the very same year that Fonda won her Oscar for the anti-war "Coming Home". There is also little impact in the story with Fonda's family, which includes her troubled sister (Swoosie Kurtz, most of whose role must have been left on the cutting room floor) and her young daughter (Martha Plimpton). In a nice small role, "The Drew Carey Show's" Kathy Kinney plays one of Fonda's co-workers.

I really wanted to like this more than just your average "Hallmark" type movie. There is absolutely nothing offensive in it, and only two scenes that are even mildly disturbing-one the opening where DeNiro comes to Fonda's rescue after her purse is snatched on the bus, and the other the slap that Kurtz gets from her struggling husband. How many movies of the past 30 years can claim that they simply are showing life without all the ugliness surrounding it? Maybe that's the film's problem. It is all too nice and wrapped up neatly rather than brought to a more dramatic head.

Iris King (Jane Fonda) is recently widowed and working at the bakery factory. Money is tight. Her purse is stolen and Stanley Cox (Robert De Niro) helps her. He's an illiterate cook at the factory canteen. She has two kids Kelly (Martha Plimpton) and Richard. Her unemployed sister Sharon (Swoosie Kurtz) and her no-good husband Joe (Jamey Sheridan) are staying with her. Kelly reveals that she's pregnant. Iris and Stanley start hanging out together and she finds out his secret. She lets the cat out of the bag to his boss and he's fired. He's left with menial work and forced to leave his father in an old-age home. When his father dies, he can't even spell the name for the death certificate. He asks her to teach him how to read.

The story has a lot of tough things going on for these poor people. The problem is that it's done with little drama. Both Fonda and De Niro are going low key with their performances. The romance is a slow boil. The movie doesn't hit big points hard or stay with them. The first big move is Joe hitting Sharon. Yet there is little follow up with them. Kelly is pregnant but that's another side trip. The most compelling part of the movie is the illiteracy but I'm not impressed with them transitioning to a romance. The acting is solid but it's all done without much tension or drama.

I found this to be a so-so romance/drama that has a nice ending and a generally nice feel to it. It's not a Hallmark Hall Of Fame-type family film with sleeping-before-marriage considered "normal" behavior but considering it stars Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro, I would have expected a lot rougher movie, at least language-wise.

The most memorable part of the film is the portrayal of how difficult it must be to learn how to read and write when you are already an adult. That's the big theme of the movie and it involves some touching scenes but, to be honest, the film isn't that memorable.

It's still a fairly mild, nice tale that I would be happy to recommend.