'5 Flights Up': With no elevator, time to move those memories

There's nothing quite as joyous and heartwarming as seeing Diane Keaton silhouetted against the Manhattan skyline once again, more than 35 years since her iconic performances in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979).

Keaton's new picture, the charming if paper-thin romantic comedy 5 Flights Up, which costars Morgan Freeman as Keaton's husband of 40-plus years, is as much a lyric to New York as those classics - although this time, we go beyond Manhattan to Brooklyn.

Based on the novel Heroic Measures by Montreal-born American author Jill Ciment and directed by Brit Richard Loncraine (perhaps best known for the 1982 version of Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacle), 5 Flights Up is about an aging couple, Alex and Ruth, and their much-aged little dog, Dorothy. They plan to sell their charming Brooklyn walk-up, their home of four decades.

Alex is a successful painter; Ruth a retired literature teacher. As played by the two remarkable actors, they bring to their shared space a feeling that is thoroughly elegant, comfortable, and loving.

But despite its many wonders, the couple's apartment just won't do any longer. It's five stories up and has no elevator; they argue (Ruth is more pro-sell than Alex) and their knees can't take the climb much longer. Nor can little dog Dorothy's back. Early in the film, she suffers a ruptured disc and has to have surgery (to the tune of $10,000).

So Ruth has her niece (Cynthia Nixon) put the place up for sale. Most of the film is spent over the course of several open houses, apartment visits, and price haggles.

In the background, a young Muslim crashes a big tanker on the Williamsburg Bridge and runs away, causing a terrorist scare.

We also are treated to several flashbacks showing the newly married couple (played with charm by Korey Jackson and Claire van der Boom) moving into the apartment the 1970s.

5 Flights Up is a sweet film with a few nicely turned lines, some good jokes, and some very lovely dialogue. But it's not much more than fluff and air.

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