‘Frank And Percy’ review: Ian McKellen and Roger Allam lift good-natured, syrupy London-set romantic comedy

Dir: Sean Mathias. UK. 2026. 109 mins

Roger Allam and Ian McKellen reprise their roles from the 2023 play Frank And Percy for this good-natured, low-key British romantic comedy about late-life love and friendship. The endearing chemistry between the two leads is just about enough to paper over the cracks in the filmmaking, which leans on a dramatically uneven script, overbearing score and an autumnal, syrupy postcard vision of London. But many sins are forgiven by the sheer tenderness of the two-hander at its core, and its gentle determination to show that romance and sex can coexist with the physical and emotional challenges of getting older.

Many sins are forgiven by the sheer tenderness of the two-hander at its core

The film marks the latest chapter in an ongoing, decades-long collaboration for McKellen, director Sean Mathias and writer Martin Sherman: Mathias has directed McKellen on stage many times since the 1980s and also in several films, most recently in 2024’s Hamlet. Sherman is best known for his 1979 play Bent, in which McKellen also starred. The three reunite here, this time with Sherman adapting Ben Weatherill’s 2023 play.

Frank And Percy has its world premiere at the London Film Festival and will be released in the UK by Icon Film Distribution. The film’s accessible LGBTQ+ subject matter and mainstream approach to storytelling prove easy bedfellows and should especially appeal to an older domestic audience. Cameos from television favourites including Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry and Derek Jacobi should further strengthen that appeal.

Two handsome dogs offer an additional draw for the easily seduced: Frank (Allam) and Percy (McKellen) first meet while walking their respective canines, Toffee and Bruno. Frank is a widowed and retired school teacher; Percy is a sociology professor and author, still working, with a long-term relationship behind him. The two men get to know each other through regular all-weather strolls on Hampstead Heath (although more fastidious Londoners might question some of the actual geography).

Each offers the other something missing in his life: Frank, the younger of the two at 77, is perceived by his condescending lodger (Jessica Gunning) as entering his dotage. Percy, who is well into his 80s, is on an app called ’Papa Search’ designed to connect younger and older men: the two dates we witness are excruciating (and ostensibly shot in the east London pub The Grapes, co-owned by McKellen and Mathias). When romance stirs, beginning with Percy stealing a kiss from Frank on a park bench, both must reconcile this new chapter with their existing lives – not least because Frank has never had a relationship with a man before. 

Perhaps the most winning aspect of Frank And Percy is its laid-back depiction of this unusual relationship. There are stumbles and moments of awkwardness between the two main characters, but there is no big crisis and no intense soul-searching. The script works best as understated comedy and mild drama; attempts to go bigger, such as an episode involving the men dressing up for Pride or a scene of the two men leaving a cinema after seeing Ira Sachs’s intense and passionate 2023 film Passages and laughing about the younger generation are not so successful. It’s honest, but it does mean that the film never digs especially deep when it comes to the realities of sexuality and emotions. 

The many scenes with Frank and Percy just walking and talking, or having a coffee, or lying in bed, feel winningly lived-in. There’s a likeable rapport between the two men which McKellen and Allam master with the no-fuss unshowiness of old pros. The same light-touch approach is less successful when applied to the various sub-plots, including those involving Percy’s former partner (Fry) and Frank’s former sister-in-law (Lumley). They can feel under-explored and, at worst, redundant. Screenwriter Sherman has expanded Weatherill’s play from just two characters and the strain sometimes shows.

The filmmaking is uncomplicated and favours simple, handsome shots and regular bursts of the score, which leans heavily into woodwinds. The cinematography regularly favours a sharp central focus, with the outer edges of the frame falling into a gentle blur. It’s a curious effect, overly cosy, which is not entirely unfitting, given the film’s overall gentle, amusing and uncomplicated approach to life and love.