FOR her legions of fans every new Maeve Binchy film is a highly anticipated treat, but this year is extra special.

How About You, directed by Anthony Byrne and produced by Noel Pearson, stars four of the most accomplished actresses of their generation. Vanessa Redgrave, Brenda Fricker, Imelda Staunton and Hayley Atwell round out an impressive cast that also features Ireland's Orla Brady.

How About You, based on a short story by Binchy, tells the story of Ellie (Atwell) a fearless young woman who is left in charge of a completely dysfunctional residential home, stuffed with high maintenance eccentrics that's usually run by her sister Kate (Brady) over the Christmas holidays.

But Ellie's youth and inexperience bring her into conflict right away with the four distinctly grumpy old gals known as "the hardcore" - retired screen beauty Georgia (Redgrave), spinster sisters Hazel (Staunton) and Heather (Fricker) and the pompous reformed alcoholic judge Donald (Joss Ackland).

Since the weather is set for storms from the opening scene it's no surprise that "the hardcore" give poor Ellie a baptism of fire almost as soon as they set eyes on her. But what they don't anticipate is that she will give it right back.

In How About You, Binchy gently reminds us that we have choices and potential all the way through life, and not just in our early years - positive transformations can happen at any age, after all.

How About You features the most accomplished cast of actors Binchy could have asked for. Asked what struck her most about their individual performances, she told the Irish Voice, "They are all established and well known actors and yet they managed to create a very authentic atmosphere of a group of frightened lonely old people unsure of their future until galvanized by young Hayley Atwell who stirs everything up."

Love, and its capacity to renew your life, regardless of where it comes from, or what shape it takes, is at the center of How About You. For the author it's a lesson that bears repeating.

"I have always believed that we are in charge of whatever life we are given, we have to play the hand that we were dealt. There are so many people around us reaching out if only we looked and could see. There's a well of friendship and shared life there waiting for those brave enough to try and grasp it," she said.

It's remarkable to see a film that explicitly addresses the fact that one never stops experiencing and growing at any age. Asked if that was part of the point of the story, she replied, "When I was young I used to think that the old had no feelings, that it was all over for them.

"As I am gradually getting there I realize this is not so, we laugh and cry and feel hope and disappointment and warmth and betrayal at every age.

"The point of the story was that this crowd of selfish, difficult people needed a good shaking up, and then they realized that their future was in their own hands."

When someone has given up on life -- and on themselves -- they can still function (even if it's with a lot of distress that they haven't admitted to themselves) but it's not exactly living. Does Binchy feel such people can still be reached?

"Modern medicine means we are all living to be older, much older than our parents and grandparents did. Admittedly there are a few aches and pains along the way. But that's only a part of life not the whole thing. The quality of our lives is really up to ourselves whether old or young.

"I have known many young people who waste their whole lives worrying about things unnecessarily, how do they look, what are people thinking of them? It was all a total waste of time and we are only here once, so should have no part of it."

The message of How About You says that it's never too late to change, a timely message at any age.

"I don't think it's ever too late to change. I did a lot of things late in life. I got married in my late thirties; I learned to drive when I was nearly 50. Now in my sixties, I'm fighting a spirited battle to understand technology. I think while we have life we have the ability to improve ourselves and broaden our horizons," Binchy feels.

The film mixes youth and experience in novel unlikely and thoughtful ways, tackling ageism at any age. But it's the friendships and solidarity between the generations that's really at the core.

"I was very pleased to see How About You made into a movie. I thought the director Anthony Byrne, who is himself a very young man, completely understood how the impatience of a young carer with these old set-in-their ways folk could in fact transform them and make them into much better much happier people."

How About You opens on November 14 at the Paris Theatre, 4 West 58th Street in New York, before going on nationwide release.