Julie Christie won the Golden Globe (too bad we didn’t get to SEE it…) for Best Actress this year for her work playing Fiona in Sarah Polley’s Away From Her (2007). This winter movie season has brought a surge of films dealing with aging and disability. The latest in the dementia category is The Savages, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, which features Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as siblings who suddenly find themselves caring for their father, (Philip Bosco). This tale of a disfunctional family is more bitter than sweet, but doctors are attesting to the nail on the head quality of the depiction of dementia. I live in a second-tier release market here in Milwaukee…so I’m still waiting for it to show up at my favorite screen. More soon…
Depressing subject matter, eh? But I’d rather see either one of the movies you cite than “Cloverfield”, the latest over-hyped Hollywood abomination. It’s…”Blair Witch Project” meets “King Kong”. And ten minutes after “Cloverfield” is over you struggle to remember any of the characters’ names. Dementia? No, just a horrible fucking movie.
Hey, wasn’t that the one about the giant, rampaging LOUSE? It was indeed. And some assholes are wasting fifteen bucks to see it…