Film The Father.

[Buster15]

For anyone who has a relative or friend with dementia or just wants to watch a highly moving film about this awful disease, The Father is an excellent film and one I would highly recommend. Brilliantly acted and definitely worth watching.

 

[Berbasbullet]

This one was a tough watch, Anthony Hopkins was so raw and brilliant in his role. Like Op said if you know anyone like this you’ll cry your eyes out. Great film!

 

[Salt Bailly]

Hopkins masterclass and brilliantly filmed to capture his confusion. Not one I'd watch for a second time, the heartbreak at the end ruined me.

 

[sebsheep]

Remember watching it after people complained about Hopkins winning an award over someone else.
Great movie, very moving and Hopkins was amazing.

 

[Buster15]

This one was a tough watch, Anthony Hopkins was so raw and brilliant in his role. Like Op said if you know anyone like this you’ll cry your eyes out. Great film!

Very well put. And have to admit to a slight tear in my eyes toward the end.
Absolutely outstanding acting by Anthony Hopkins and well deserved Oscar.
Similarly brilliant acting by Olivia Coleman.

 

[Buster15]

Hopkins masterclass and brilliantly filmed to capture his confusion. Not one I'd watch for a second time, the heartbreak at the end ruined me.

The heartbreak at the end was extremely tough to watch as you rightly say. But life is tough isn't it. So the film had to be true to reality.

 

[Wibble]

Very well put. And have to admit to a slight tear in my eyes toward the end.
Absolutely outstanding acting by Anthony Hopkins and well deserved Oscar.
Similarly brilliant acting by Olivia Coleman.

Hopkins and to a lesser degree Coleman were excellent. I really enjoyed the film (not really the right term) but I thought it perhaps suffered slightly from being adapted/developed from a stage play. The only think I'd say, from my experience with both parents having died of/with Alzheimers, is that they missed the physical indignities that Alzheimer's suffers usually endure. Then again it was depressing enough as it was filmed I guess.

 

[Wibble]

I thought this was a well written and interesting article on the subject. I hate writing diaries so that bit didn't resonate with me and I'm not sure I found the experience at all profound or valuable, probably because my views of euthanasia were already fairly well formed, but the rest was all very true in my case as well.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...-things-i-learned-when-my-father-had-dementia

 

[Buster15]

Hopkins and to a lesser degree Coleman were excellent. I really enjoyed the film (not really the right term) but I thought it perhaps suffered slightly from being adapted/developed from a stage play. The only think I'd say, from my experience with both parents having died of/with Alzheimers, is that they missed the physical indignities that Alzheimer's suffers usually endure. Then again it was depressing enough as it was filmed I guess.

Yes indeed. I was initially slightly confused until I realised that everything we were seeing in the film was what Anthony was seeing and thinking.
And actually that made it even more fascinating.
One thing he did portray well was the fear that people with Alzheimer's must be feeling as they lose their grip on reality.

As someone in their early 70s, this is something I am increasingly concerned about.
And judging by some of my posts, with good reason....

 

[wr8_utd]

Lost my dad to dementia last year and had watched him struggle for the best part of the last 6-7 years so I was a bit wary about watching this last year. But it was a really good watch and did a fairly good job of capturing the struggles involving the patient and a caregiver.

 

[Wibble]

Yes indeed. I was initially slightly confused until I realised that everything we were seeing in the film was what Anthony was seeing and thinking.
And actually that made it even more fascinating.
One thing he did portray well was the fear that people with Alzheimer's must be feeling as they lose their grip on reality.

As someone in their early 70s, this is something I am increasingly concerned about.
And judging by some of my posts, with good reason....

I'd agree about the fear (and confusion bit) my old man was like that and it was heartbreaking.

I'm a bit over a decade behind you and death doesn't scare me at all (although I'd prefer it to be in many decades time). Physical aging is bad enough but losing my mental faculties would be my worst nightmare. Especially as I'd then have to rely on my looks

 

[Wibble]

Lost my dad to dementia last year and had watched him struggle for the best part of the last 6-7 years so I was a bit wary about watching this last year. But it was a really good watch and did a fairly good job of capturing the struggles involving the patient and a caregiver.

Sorry to hear that. It is brutal isn't it? Alzheimer's I mean, not the film, although ....

 

[Buster15]

I'd agree about the fear (and confusion bit) my old man was like that and it was heartbreaking.

I'm a bit over a decade behind you and death doesn't scare me at all (although I'd prefer it to be in many decades time). Physical aging is bad enough but losing my mental faculties would be my worst nightmare. Especially as I'd then have to rely on my looks

I am not frightened of dying either and this might be a reasonable topic for a new thread.

 

[simonhch]

An absolute masterclass in acting. There was an uproar in some quarters when Sir Anthony won over the posthumous Chadwick Boseman. But anyone who has seen the film can understand how it was clearly the right choice. One of the best acting performances I've seen in a long. long time. I dare say one of the best individual performances I've ever seen. And to produce it in his 80s is quite something else.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

It was a very well made film, wonderfully acted, but incredibly sad to watch.

 

[tentan]

Hopkins and to a lesser degree Coleman were excellent. I really enjoyed the film (not really the right term) but I thought it perhaps suffered slightly from being adapted/developed from a stage play. The only think I'd say, from my experience with both parents having died of/with Alzheimers, is that they missed the physical indignities that Alzheimer's suffers usually endure. Then again it was depressing enough as it was filmed I guess.

How like

 

[Wibble]

How like

Incontinence, inability to feed yourself, falling, sadly lots of ways.