GRIFFIN AND PHOENIX is a poignantly funny love story about two people who face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle that may stand between them and a last chance at love.

Is it ever too late to have a last chance at love? The heartwarming answer of Griffin & Phoenix is, thankfully, no. This sweet little film has a big heart, and carries itself with grace and class, despite its tough subject matter. And that's due largely to the moving performances by the two leads, and the deft direction of Ed Stone, who's never heavy-handed. Griffin (Dermot Mulroney) learns in the film's opening scene that he has inoperable cancer and not long to live. A workaholic, Griffin screeches in his tracks at the news, and at reconsidering the priorities he thought ruled his life. By chance he runs into Phoenix (Amanda Peet), a will o' the wisp free spirit who has hidden issues of her own. But sometimes chemistry has a mind of its own, and the two are drawn together in ways both warm and sad. (Have a hankie or two handy.) Despite the subject matter, the film never loses the ordinary absurdities of life. "You can't save my life," says a quiet Griffin to his doctor in the early scene. "Can you validate my parking?" It's this embrace of humor and pathos that makes Griffin & Phoenix so memorable as a film--and as a mirror of life. --A.T. Hurley