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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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The Waitress
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Seen, Heard, Noted & Quoted
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A Rated PG-13 110 min
This film, helmed by Sarah Polley, is an example of what I define as “real cinema.” It is an adult drama that delves deeply into an important subject with intelligently written dialogue and cinematic subtlety. Based on Alice Munro’s story, it involves a seemingly happy seventy-something couple, Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant (Gordon Pinsent). They live in the Canadian country near a frozen lake and go cross-country skiing together, They are the picture of health. Fiona still has a great figure and a beautiful face, and they have never been separated in the last forty-four years.
After noticing that she was having serious memory problems, and put the frying pan in the freezer, Fiona goes to the doctor and gets a battery of tests, coming back with grim news. Fiona has Alzheimers. Shocked and dismayed, Grant wants her to stay with him as long as she can. But when she goes cross-country skiing, gets lost, and almost freezes to death, she insists on checking herself into a luxury Alzheimers’ care center.
Grant visits the center and is depressed by what he sees. His efforts to convince her to stay at home fall on deaf ears. Fiona seems relieved to check into the center. She views it as a hotel. However, when Grant finds out that the center’s rules require relatives to stay away for the first thirty days, he doesn’t see how he can do it. Of course, Fiona’s illness is much harder on Grant than Fiona, who is taking the degeneration of her brain with stoicism and resignation.
Polley’s straight forward filmmaking style creates an uncluttered setting for character development. Alice Munro’s screenplay avoids gushing sentimentality while showing the tragic advancement of this insidious disease and how it affects the family, and in this case, devastates Grant. Under normal circumstances, just dealing with a loved one with Alzheimers would be hard enough, but in this story, Fiona develops a romantic relationship with another patient, Aubrey (Michael Murphy) who is in the final stages of the disease, is wheelchair bound, and can’t talk.
When Grant comes to visit Fiona after the 30 day separation she treats him like a suitor instead of her husband. It’s not clear that she even recognizes Grant. He is shattered and jealous that she is caring for, and seems to love, this other man. However, a sympathetic staff member, Kristy (Kristen Thomson), attempts to comfort him by telling him it is not unusual for the center’s patients to develop relationships with other patients. It’s no consolation. Grant feels shut out of his wife’s life. It’s another tragic symptom of this cruel disease that is slowly shutting down Fiona’s brain one circuit at a time.
Indeed, this is Julie Christie’s magnum opus performance as Fiona. Her characterization is skillfully nuansed and insightful, even humorous as she blithely accepts her fate. Gordon Pinsent also captures Grant’s trauma and sense of grief with convincing realism. Viewers will empathize with Grant, who is suddenly lonely and doesn’t fully understand the awful symptoms of Alzheimer that have alienated him from the love of his life.
Grant visits Aubrey’s wife Marian (Olympia Dukakis) to commiserate about their respective spouses. Marian has brought Aubrey back home and Grant wants her to take him back to the center because Fiona is miserable without him. The two other victims of Alzheimer strike up a friendship and then start dating, which, under the circumstances, seems an acceptable way of coping with their dying spouses.
Stories about the devastating effects of Alzheimers on the wives and husbands of the victims tend to be depressing. However, this exemplary scenario sheds light on the possible ways of coping and it gives the viewer a measure of hope. Today, there are new drugs that allow Alzheimers’ patients to enjoy a better quality of life before the disease overwhelms their brains at an advanced age. Still, an Alzheimers diagnosis is a traumatic experience for all concerned. This film deals with this trauma with sensitive dynamics and humor. It’s an Oscar worthy picture for lovers of real cinema.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
