|
The Father
Jun 27, 2021 15:05:56 GMT 10
via mobile
Post by pim on Jun 27, 2021 15:05:56 GMT 10
Just saw it today in the local arthouse Palace cinema. It stars Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman in the lead roles. Hopkins won an Oscar for his portrayal of an elderly dad living with his daughter as he gradually descends into the fog of dementia. It's a superb movie even if the subject matter is rather harrowing. It's also an important movie in the way it addresses the subject of dementia, not just on how it affects the relationships of the family members who are trying to care for the afflicted parent, but on the dementia sufferer himself who finds his grip on reality slipping.
Warning: not for the faint-hearted especially if you've had experience of dementia among your own family members.
|
|
|
Post by Stellar on Jun 30, 2021 11:11:46 GMT 10
I don't know whether I would want to see that movie. The subject matter is always depressing when it's about dementia. And just the other day, before the lockdown, my neighbour of 28 years was taken to the nursing home by her daughter. She had very mild forgetfulness - but was nowhere near the level of nursing home residents! And she was only 77! She could do everything for herself, could cook and clean and wash. Was always beautifully groomed and dressed. She went out most days and travelled about Sydney by public transport. She didn't need any help from anyone - although we neighbours who are in shock about this decision because we didn't see it coming - were there to help in any emergency. She just needed her daughter to take her shopping occasionally as she stopped driving earlier this year.
The problem with a nursing home is lack of stimulation. You're told when to get up, when to eat, when to shower, when to go to bed. You become institutionalised and go down rapidly.
Fortunately we don't have any dementia in our family and our grandmothers lived to their mid to late 90s. But I've worked in a dementia unit and I know that after 7 months I was ever so glad to leave! But most of those case were severe.
|
|
|
Post by pim on Jul 1, 2021 7:48:57 GMT 10
It wasn’t an easy movie to watch Stellar but it was worth it for me personally because I left feeling I’d learned something from Anthony Hopkins performance as the dementia sufferer. It must be terrifying to find the world around you progressively making less and less sense. To the carer you become more dependent, more demanding, more anxious and less cooperative. I’ve noticed with dementia sufferers that they can worry over things that to the rest of us are trivial and unimportant. In the movie the Hopkins character keeps on losing his watch - which means he can’t remember where he put it - and it becomes a drama that consumes his morning. He accuses people of stealing his watch when in fact he hides his watch so that it doesn’t get stolen and then forgets where he hid it. Anthony Hopkins achievement is to portray the dementia that progressively consumes the parent and also takes over the life and affects the relationships of the daughter/carer played by Olivia Colman., and to do it sympathetically. You never feel like laughing at anything the Hopkins character does. My partner was in floods of tears. But that’s another story.
|
|