WRITER/director Julie Gavros’s film about ageing is clever, witty, perceptive, mildly un-nerving and, therefore, very worthwhile.

Architect Adam takes on bread-and-butter projects such as transport hubs that other firms don’t find sexy enough. Retired teacher Mary, a grandmother at 59, wants Adam to join her in preparing for old age. But Adam enjoys his work, even when the firm comes close to failure because all the transport hubs have been built.

Crisp dialogue and gentle tensions between a couple who deserve to have a happy rest-of-their-lives give “Late Bloomers” a nice balance between humour and marital friction.

The cast feels comfortable with what Gavros asks of them. Simon Callow offers some great one-liners – “Growing old is not for sissies”. Mary’s mother (Doreen Mantle) is scratchy about Mary’s obsession with making the couple’s apartment proof against all imaginable hazards. Eighty-year-old Leslie Phillips drives elderly ladies from the geriatric home to funerals while they make bets about which of them will be next to relocate there.

We hope Adam and Mary will resolve the issues driving them apart – separate residences, momentary infidelities, alliances with their children, persevering each with the attitudes at the root of the issue – but Gavros keeps us uncertain right to the end.

At Greater Union