Meryl Streep comedy Hope Springs praised for 'heartfelt' look at senior sex

Others critics have applauded the freshness of approach to the subject in an "age-phobic Hollywood". Metro.us hails the birth of the "Viagromedy".

The Huffington Post says it might make you cringe, but gives the thumbs up to a "rare little film". The film has received a 79% rating on the film aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

"What could have been strained farce or, worse, geezer porn, morphs instead into a film of hilarious and heartfelt pleasures," writes Rolling Stone.

Written by Vanessa Taylor, who most recently worked on the HBO series Game of Thrones, the film pairs Streep, 63, and Tommy Lee Jones, 65, for the first time.

Streep has said she accepted the challenging role because the subject was "something no one wants to talk about".

"As we get cruder or rougher or meaner, we have lost not the desire for intimacy, but certainly the way to talk about it. A kind of heartfelt thing is missing in a lot of popular movies," said Streep.

The film is released in the UK on 14 September.