''Love Comes Lately'' (german: Bis später, Max!) is a 2007 film written for the screen and directed by

Jan Schütte Jan Schütte (born 26 June 1957) is a German film director and screenwriter. He has directed twelve films since 1982. His film '' The Farewell'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. After graduating f ...

. The film is based on the short stories of

Isaac Bashevis Singer Isaac Bashevis Singer ( yi, יצחק באַשעװיס זינגער; November 11, 1903 – July 24, 1991) was a Polish-born American Jewish writer who wrote and published first in Yiddish and later translated himself into English with the help ...

Plot

Elderly Jewish writer Max Kohn (

Otto Tausig Otto Tausig (13 February 1922 – 10 October 2011) was an Austrian writer, director and actor. Although he usually appeared in German language films, he also played in English language films such as '' Love Comes Lately'', and in French language fi ...

) is an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Huguenots fled France followin ...

whose mind is constantly working causing a state of perpetual confusion. He's a successful author of short stories who lives in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and is so stuck in his old ways that he believes that the only proper way to write is by using a typewriter. Max has several women interested in seducing him, but he spends most of his time with fellow worrier Reisel (

Rhea Perlman Rhea Jo Perlman (born March 31, 1948) is an American actress. She played head-waitress Carla Tortelli in the sitcom ''Cheers'' (1982–1993). Over the course of 11 seasons, Perlman was nominated for ten Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Ac ...

). During a trip to speak in nearby Hanover Max begins editing his latest story—a wild tale of a

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

retiree who gets himself into various kinds of trouble. It doesn't take Max long to lose himself in his own writings, and pretty soon, he's mixed up in two sexy romances and an unsolved murder. Upon returning to reality, Max begins to feel as if his own written words have begun to manifest themselves. A meeting with burned out former student Rosalie ( Barbara Hershey), with whom he shares a mutual attraction, follows, and later while heading to Springfield for another unwanted speaking engagement Max discovers that he has lost the speech he prepared. After a series of small adventures, Max decides to start writing a new story based on his recent life and featuring a protagonist named Harry—a thinly veiled stand-in for himself.

Principal Cast

as Max Kohn *

as Reisel * John C. Vennema as Dr. Grosskopf * Olivia Thirlby as Sylvia Brokeles *

Tovah Feldshuh Terri Sue "Tovah" Feldshuh (born December 27, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and playwright. She has been a Broadway star for more than four decades, earning four Tony Award nominations. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations f ...

as Ethel * Bunny Levine as M.N. *

Brian Doyle-Murray Brian Murray (born October 31, 1945), known professionally by his stage name as Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, voice-actor and screenwriter. He has appeared with his younger brother, actor/comedian Bill Murray, in several movies, i ...

as The Boss * Elizabeth Peña as Esperanza * Barbara Hershey as Rosalie * Gurdeep Singh as H.P. * Lee Wilkof as Professor Meyer

Reception

The film received a score of 70% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, indicating pretty good reviews. From Nathan Lee at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'': From Wesley Morris at ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'': From Ruthe Stein at ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'':

References

External links

* * * {{Isaac Bashevis Singer 2007 films Austrian comedy-drama films English-language Austrian films English-language German films Films about writers Films based on works by Isaac Bashevis Singer Films based on short fiction Films set in New York City Films shot in Florida Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in New Hampshire German comedy-drama films Films about Jews and Judaism Films directed by Jan Schütte Films based on multiple works 2000s English-language films American comedy-drama films 2000s American films 2000s German films