Widow and former songstress Carol Petersen lives alone in California with her dog, Hazel. Her life is very routine, especially since she has not had a serious relationship in the twenty years since her husband has died and has no desire to begin dating or marrying again. One day she is forced to put the elderly dog down, leaving her without her main companion outside of her friends Georgina, Rona, and Sally who all live at a retirement community. After coming home from the appointment, she finds a large rat in her house, which leads her to sleep outside for the night, at which point she meets her new pool boy, Lloyd. Though Lloyd initially offends her, the two begin an unlikely friendship after Lloyd asks to meet with her as friends. While looking at vitamins in her local drugstore, Carol meets Bill, who flirts with her before leaving. Later, her friends convince her to go to a speed dating session for senior citizens. Though Carol is uninterested in the men she meets, she later encounters Bill in the parking lot, and he asks her out for a date. Carol goes home and calls Lloyd to go to karaoke. Though Lloyd is a mediocre singer, Carol impresses him with her singing ability. They go back to her house, and they discuss "living in the moment," but it is something that Carol dismisses. Lloyd reveals that he is not looking forward to anything in his life, and that he feels that he has no real prospects outside of the responsibility he feels for his ailing mother. She gets a message from Bill, who wants to see her and asks that she meet him at the retirement community where he also lives. She meets with him and he takes her out on his boat, the "So What" - something, he says, he has never done with anyone else. Bill tells her that he bought a boat on a whim, as he did not want to be the sort of retiree who fell into boring, stagnant routines. After dinner, Bill drives her home, and they share a kiss; Bill says that he wants to see her again. Carol is giddy, until she sees the rat again. Carol and her friends get high, steal a grocery cart after shopping, and evade a curious policeman. When she gets home, she has a message from Bill, wanting to set up another date. Bill spends the night and they are very much taken with one another. Over breakfast, Bill asks Carol if she ever considered marrying again. Carol lightheartedly scoffs and says she hardly knows him. Their conversation is interrupted by a doorbell visit from Lloyd, and he tells her that he quit his job, though he did get a job as a pool cleaner at another business. Carol is obviously reluctant to invite Lloyd in, but Bill, in his T-shirt comes up behind her, introductions are made and Bill invites Lloyd to breakfast. Awkwardly, Lloyd says he just wanted to let Carol know about the new job and leaves. Bill wants to see Carol again, but she tells him that her daughter Katherine has come to town. Katherine notes that Carol seems different, but in a good way. Carol tells her that she is seeing someone, and Katherine insists that she wants to meet him. However, Carol finds frantic messages from Rona on her answering machine when they get back home as Bill is in the hospital for an unknown condition. Since only immediate family can see him, Carol is unable to be admitted. Sadly, she soon gets a call that he has died, and grieves that she has lost someone again. She asks Katherine why people bother getting attached when death is inevitable, a sentiment she expressed to Lloyd earlier. Katherine points out all the good things that happened because of Carol taking chances and risks. Carol's grief is palpable, but after her daughter has returned to New York, she once again gets back to the routines of playing golf and cards with her friends. She makes a trip down to where Bill's boat is still moored, and in conversation over cards one of her friends asks about the boat, which Carol says is still there, that there was no one to leave the boat to, and that she'd asked Bill's lawyer if she could have something of Bill's as a keepsake. We don't learn whether there was anything given to her, but one day, as she is at home dusting the items on her fireplace mantel - framed family photos, a large urn and a little flower print tin containing her dog's remains - she finds a cellophane-wrapped cigar lying there, the type that Bill always had tucked in his mouth, unlit, an old habit he hadn't quite given up on. Lloyd comes to visit Carol in his new uniform. The rat appears again and he manages to trap it, and afterwards Carol finally breaks down in tears over losing Bill. Lloyd comforts her and plays for her a poignant song that he wrote, "I'll See You in My Dreams." Later, Carol meets with her friends, and Sally insists that they should all go on a cruise together. Though the other friends are reluctant at first, Carol impulsively agrees, leading the others to join in. The film ends with Carol adopting an elderly dog and driving home with him, taking another chance at love.
I'll See You in My Dreams premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2015, where it was acquired by Bleecker Street. It was released on May 15, 2015 in a limited release.
Critical reception
The film received largely positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 93%, based on 91 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "I'll See You in My Dreams would be worth watching even if Blythe Danner's central performance was all it had going for it, but this thoughtful drama satisfies on multiple levels." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 75 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
