Beautiful film that tells the story in a touching and funny way and thanks to the innocence of a little girl it is able to tell the story making it within everyone's reach without ever being too heavy.

Nick Nolte plays Amadeus, a widowed former veterinarian. Now a doddery grandfather who is behaving erratically because of his Alzheimer's.

His son Nick (Matt Dillon) living in England with his wife Sarah (Emily Mortimer) are in a state of despair over Amadeus's behaviour. In once scene he urinates inside the fridge.

Ten year old granddaughter Matilda takes Amadeus on a trip to Venice in order to rekindle his memories with his late wife.

Actor turned director Til Schweiger has remade his own German film. Although set in Britain, it is shot in Germany. The journey could be a more plausible road trip in the original. The journey is Germany to Italy.

In this remake, the sight of a young girl taking her befuddled grandfather to Venice looks irresponsible. It helps that Amadeus has a credit card with a high credit limit to pay for the journey and the hotel.

In the meantime Nick and Sarah frantically try to track both of them down with the local police not to bothered.

It was a split vote in our household. My wife enjoyed the film, I found it mawkish and the comedy stretched credibility. In short the movie is too contrived and absurd.

Matilda is played by Nolte's real life daughter. Jake Weber plays a doctor and unusually for him, he uses his real life English accent. Eric Roberts has a cameo as another doctor.

How to make an inherently difficult subject interesting is a challenge. Nick Nolte and Sophia Nolte succee to a degree.