The laughs are cute and spare in the Swiss comedy “Golden Years,” a movie more interested in looking at what the novelist Tom Robbins said was the “ONLY” question in life worth asking — “How to make love stay.”

Are we entering an evolutionary change in the nature of marriage and “life partnership,” thanks to people living longer, with more access to more distractions — human and otherwise — even in life’s twilight?

“Will it go along like this until the end,” our frustrated heroine, Alice, asks her disinterested husband of 42 years, Peter? She can’t be the only one wondering this.

Peter (Stefan Kurt) retires, gets a pink balloon and a giant jug of cheap bourbon at the office and a congratulatory party at home. He seems all set to settle in to this new place in life.

But jazzercising free spirit Alice (Esther Gemsch) is more excited for the Mediterranean cruise their two adult children have bought for them. Peter wants to give it back, but Alice won’t hear of it.

Then their dear friend Magali (Elvira Plüss) dies in Alice’s arms on a hike. Alice is crushed. Peter is upset. And his solution for newly widowed Heinz’s (Ueli Jäggi) despair is to invite him on their “romantic” cruise.

Alice’s dismay is obvious from the first, and will only grow after they board and set sail. The fact that their children (Isabelle Barth and Martin Vischer) are in a troubled marriage and deep into a Tinder addiction respectively troubles her. And as Magali’s last words were for her to fetch “letters” from her nightstand, evidence of a years-long affair with in neighboring France gets Alice wondering about other ways to live the rest of her life.

Director Barbara Kulcsar takes her time setting up the contrasts — Peter’s life-extending exercise/vegetarian lifestyle vs. Alice’s “I’m only 65. I’m not 90 YET” (in German with English subtitles) fury at his disinterest — and takes more time pointing the picture in the direction we’ve known it would go from the moment we see the letters and that they have a French return address on them.

Our filmmakers tease the same sex lifestyle options and how attractive those might look to people whose sexual ardor has cooled, or is ripe for a “something different” revival.

“Golden Years” is a romantic comedy with questions and perhaps a very modern “answer” to that “Will it go on like this until the end?” challenge. But even though it’s well-acted, scenic and charming enough, perhaps finding a few more laughs should have been a higher priority.

Rating: 16+, adult themes and situations

Cast: Esther Gemsch, Stefan Kurt, Ueli Jäggi, Gundi Ellert and Elvira Plüss

Credits: Directed by Barbara Kulcsar, scripted by Petra Biondina Volpe. A Music Box release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:32