'Ladies in Lavender': Classy company

As lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II knew perfectly well, there is nothing like a dame. And if one is good, two are better.

That was surely what first-time director Charles Dance was banking on with his slight, but charming film Ladies in Lavender, which would have been a long 103 minutes without the services of Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench.

Roadside Attractions 'Ladies in Lavender' B The verdict: Not much happens in this Cornwall yarn, but Smith and Dench lay on the charm. Director: Charles Dance Starring: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Natascha McElhone, Daniel Bruhl, Miriam Margolyes, Freddie Jones Run time: 103 minutes Release date: April 8, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for brief language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Ladies in Lavender"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

They play unmarried sisters, living out their lives in coastal Cornwall in the southwest corner of England, puttering in their garden and tinkering with the wireless radio.

Since it is 1936, they keep hearing about war brewing in Europe because of that Hitler fellow, but they tend to shrug their shoulders and sip their afternoon tea.

After awhile, the semblance of a plot kicks in, when they find a young man, unconscious on the seaside rocks below them, following a doozy of a storm.

Suddenly, Janet Widdington (Smith) and her younger sister, Ursula (Dench), have a project, as they take in the young man and proceed to nurse him back to health, even though he speaks no English.

His primary language seems impenetrable at first, but this stranger from the sea also seems to speak a little German, so practical Janet finds her old German language textbook and attempts to communicate with him.

Janet, we learn, is a widow, having lost her husband in the first World War. But Ursula never married and as she gets to know the young man — named Andrea Marowski — she becomes convinced that a romance is possible between them.

As Polish-born Andrea (Daniel Bruhl of Good Bye, Lenin!) gradually picks up English phrases, we learn along with the sisters Widdington that he is a violin virtuoso. Hey, why not? So they borrow a fiddle to allow Andrea to remain in concert-ready form while his ankle heals.

And wouldn't you know it, his sweet music attracts the attention of an appreciative visiting painter, Olga Danilof (exceedingly thin, angular Natascha McElhone, fresh from the apocalypse in TV's Revelations).

Together they speak German, which perturbs the townfolk, who worry that one of them may be a spy. The possibility that Andrea may be a secret agent will probably have occurred to you, too, simply because it would make the movie more interesting. But no such luck; he really is a violinist. And since Olga's brother happens to be a well-connected musician himself, he is able to wangle a broadcast concert gig for Andrea in London.

All of this could easily have been a Masterpiece Theatre episode, except for those dames, who invest their signature performance savvy in Ladies in Lavender as if it were Shakespeare.

Smith plays haughty suspicion and simple jealousy as well as anyone and can deliver a line with a delicious double meaning curve. Dench truly blossoms as she convinces herself of the possibility of love with Andrea and her plummet back down to reality is quite touching.

Dismissing this film as a cobweb-encrusted trifle would be understandable, but moviegoers who simply want to be in the company of Smith and Dench for a while will surely be rewarded by the time spent with these Ladies.