‘SUPERNOVA' IS A QUIET BURNING STAR OF A LOVE STORY

The actors Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth have been friends for 20 years and that is plainly evident watching them play longtime lovers in the wrenchingly beautiful film “Supernova.”

The award-winning duo are like a well-worn sweater onscreen, comfortable and lived-in, showing the kind of tart affection people show when ardor’s lust has given way to the slow burn of adoration.

In a scene early on in “Supernova,” Tucci’s character asks Firth’s character how things are going. “It’s fine for me,” comes the steady reply. Tucci knows better: “Liar,” he says, simply.

He’s right because the film is about impending loss: Tucci’s Tusker has early onset dementia and Firth’s Sam is thrust into the position of watching the possibility of his love outlast his lover.

Writer-director Harry Macqueen’s script is as spare and natural as the setting — England’s Lake District, with its ancient stone walls and rolling misty green countryside. Dementia is never mentioned and referred to only obliquely, as in “the bloody thing.”

The film opens with the couple in a motorhome revisiting places and people they enjoyed over the years. Tusker, an American novelist, is ostensibly finishing his latest book and the trip will end with Sam, a very English pianist, giving a concert.