| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Don't let the subject matter scare you away
by Linda (movies profile)
Feb 8, 2008
3
of
3 people found this review helpful
Don't assume that this is another depressing tearjerker about Alzheimers. Although the story centers on the ravages of age on the leads' father, this is a really funny, insightful, very realistic story about a brother and sister who have to take on a problem that most of us will reluctantly face.
Hoffman and Linney are both just terrific, and their roles are so much more 3 dimensional than we usually see in a film about dealing with a family illness like senile dementia. Both manage to take relatively unsympathetic, selfish, immature and emotionally stunted people to a place where we can understand and even like them, much like we do the family black sheep ne'er do wells in our own families.
There are some uncomfortable moments of recognition for peope who might have had the experience of having to institutionalize an aging parent or loved one--the guilt, the fear, the resentment, the family strife, the sadness. But there is also humor and even some relatively uplifting moments when these siblings manage to rise to the occasion even as they are dragged kicking and screaming to responsibility for seeing to it that an imperfect parent has at least some dignity and quality of life at the end.
The cinematography really stood out to me too and helped drive home the story. The sense of mood and place was very well done.
It may be the best movie I've seen all year. I hope it finds its public. |
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