“Last Chance Harvey” is a master class in film acting, courtesy of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Every aspiring actor should study it.

“Last Chance Harvey” also happens to be a dandy romance, especially if you’re old enough to have scored a few Purple Hearts on the battlefields of love.

Harvey Shine (Hoffman) is a failed jazz pianist who makes a living in New York by composing music for commercial jingles. He’s divorced, a bit rumpled and lonely. Harvey flies to London for the wedding of his daughter (Liane Balaban), only to suffer a series of professional and familial humiliations that leave him feeling even more the outsider than before.

Thompson plays a middle-aged Englishwoman named Kate Walker who interviews travelers at Heathrow Airport for information that presumably is sold or otherwise put to use by her employer. Kate is unmarried, beleaguered by her well-meaning but intrusive mother (Eileen Atkins) and every bit as lonely as poor Harvey. Hard experience has convinced her that every relationship will eventually disappoint.

It’s a given that Harvey and Kate will meet and fall in serious like, possibly even love. Writer-director Joel Hopkins deserves credit for taking his time in bringing them together, the better to fully define his characters before their inevitable life-changing encounter. Effectively alternating between their separate narratives, he even has Kate and Harvey cross paths a couple of times before they finally achieve significant face time in a witty bar scene that is one high point of the movie.

Another takes place at the wedding reception, which Harvey attends only because Kate insists and because she agrees to go along. His toast to the newlyweds melts the heart even of his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) — not to mention the roomful of sniffling women who attended Friday’s first showing (along with maybe half a dozen hardy men) at the Grandin Theatre.

Since there’s never a doubt that Harvey and Kate will take a last chance at romance, the fun is in watching them reach their decision. More specifically, the fun is in watching the nuanced, perfectly measured performances of two old pros. Hoffman and Thompson make an ordinary story feel as fresh and beguiling as first love.