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A strong drama of alzheimer's and dementia that has it's flaws but features some really sharp acting by Hilary Swank and Liev Schrieber, - I mean Michael Shannon (who is really damn good, as usual).
As the parents are Robert Forster and Blythe Danner (Gwyneth's mommy poo). Forster really can't be bad in a movie like ever, and Danner always seems to get down the eggshelly and remote sophist-o-ditz, and so casting for this movie really could not have been that much better all things considered.
The two adult kids want to lock up their forward retarding senility mom against strong wishes from the father who wants to keep her at home with him, where she can get the most care.
I laughed a few times because this movie offers comedy I don't find too much with more recent films, at least more recent films where the UNIVERSAL logo pumps out its indie rainbow camera flares mixed in with its CGI bumper plate.
The writing is tremendous, and that's not to say that the movie completely works, because it doesn't.
The teenage subplot seems kind of too developed for its own good. I found myself kind of feeling draggy once we took frequent detours to the usual cliche troubled baby of the family. It's not that this component was over-written - it's just that the director made sure to pepper it perfectly even within the film, and even if this may be a semi-autobiographical element to this film - it didn't work for me, personally. It was there enough to want to see something at least resolve more powerfully, and it does not. I suspect the casting might've been wrong for that part which took up so much time.
What They Had (2018) dir Elizabeth Chomko
A strong drama of alzheimer's and dementia that has it's flaws but features some really sharp acting by Hilary Swank and Liev Schrieber, - I mean Michael Shannon (who is really damn good, as usual).
As the parents are Robert Forster and Blythe Danner (Gwyneth's mommy poo). Forster really can't be bad in a movie like ever, and Danner always seems to get down the eggshelly and remote sophist-o-ditz, and so casting for this movie really could not have been that much better all things considered.
The two adult kids want to lock up their forward retarding senility mom against strong wishes from the father who wants to keep her at home with him, where she can get the most care.
I laughed a few times because this movie offers comedy I don't find too much with more recent films, at least more recent films where the UNIVERSAL logo pumps out its indie rainbow camera flares mixed in with its CGI bumper plate.
The writing is tremendous, and that's not to say that the movie completely works, because it doesn't.
The teenage subplot seems kind of too developed for its own good. I found myself kind of feeling draggy once we took frequent detours to the usual cliche troubled baby of the family. It's not that this component was over-written - it's just that the director made sure to pepper it perfectly even within the film, and even if this may be a semi-autobiographical element to this film - it didn't work for me, personally. It was there enough to want to see something at least resolve more powerfully, and it does not. I suspect the casting might've been wrong for that part which took up so much time.
And looks like I'm out of time so there's the review!