The Time of Their Lives

The Time of Their Lives is a road-trip comedy written and directed by Roger Goldby. It stars Joan Collins, Pauline Collins, and Franco Nero.

In a departure from the male-driven road trip comedies usually seen on screens, and in strong female roles not often written for their demographic, Collins and Collins shine in a film about escaping and breaking free – and how it’s never too late to have another chance at life. Determined to gatecrash her ex-lover’s funeral on the glamorous French hideaway of Île de Ré, former Hollywood siren Helen (Joan Collins) escapes her London retirement home with the help of Priscilla (Pauline Collins), a repressed English housewife stuck in a dwindling marriage. Pooling their limited resources, they hit the road in a race to get to Île de Ré, becoming entangled in a love triangle with a reclusive Italian millionaire (Nero) along the way. On this unforgettable journey, they find true friendship in one another – and have the time of their lives.

“I was drawn to the notion of escape, of going on an adventure, a physical journey, which is atypical for the majority of pensioners,” Goldby explains. “I wanted to see elderly characters doing something out of the ordinary but perfectly plausible. A road movie seemed the ideal vehicle for this story: two characters in a foreign environment on an extraordinary journey – literally and figuratively – and this is what jolts them both out of their skins and allows them to change.”

The Time of Their Lives is rated PG.