{"id":1742,"date":"2017-09-14T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T18:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=1742"},"modified":"2018-05-01T09:42:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T13:42:24","slug":"dementia-in-films-getting-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2017\/09\/dementia-in-films-getting-it-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Dementia in Films: Getting It Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

I loved the novel Still Alice<\/em> because it was an accurate portrayal of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. And the movie Still Alice<\/em> got it right too.<\/p>\n

I lead support groups for caregivers of people with Alzheimer\u2019s so I was eager to find out what they thought of the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHas anyone seen Still Alice?\u201d <\/em>I asked at the next meeting.\u201cYes, but I didn\u2019t like it,\u201d said Phyllis.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally?\u201d I was surprised.<\/p>\n

Fran chimed in, \u201cMe neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d I thought maybe it was too harsh a reminder of what they were living with\u2014but not at all.<\/p>\n

Fran explained, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t begin to show how difficult and tedious the caregiver\u2019s job can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly!\u201d agreed Phyllis. \u201cAlice wet her pants once, not six times a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The caregivers went to the movie looking for a realistic depiction of Alzheimer\u2019s caregiving. I went looking for an accurate presentation of the disease. We all wanted the film to get it right.<\/p>\n

Why did we care so much about its accuracy? What difference could it make?<\/p>\n

If the movie is accurate, it can promote understanding of the disease and lessen fear and especially the stigma. This may be some viewers\u2019 first look at Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s honest, it can elicit compassion for the person with dementia and for their care partner. Certainly the caregivers I know looked for validation of their trials.<\/p>\n

If a movie includes the context of the caregiver relationship, it can lessen a tendency to judge caregivers, as well as increase support for them.<\/p>\n

The movie Still Alice<\/em> focuses intensely on Alice and her experience\u2014so much so that some critics faulted it for leaving the other characters undeveloped.<\/p>\n

An honest and engaging portrayal of a disease as misunderstood as Alzheimer\u2019s is no small accomplishment. Yet every case of Alzheimer\u2019s\u2014indeed, every life\u2014takes place in a context. The most important component of context for people with Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other dementias is their relationship with their caregiver. The relative absence of a focus on that relationship in Still Alice<\/em> was noticed by caregivers and critics alike.<\/p>\n

How have other films presented dementia? I was curious, so over a period of three weeks I watched seven more movies that purport to depict Alzheimer\u2019s or other dementias in a leading character and also show caregiving in that situation. Two of the films got Alzheimer\u2019s right and had much richer relationship contexts than does Still Alice, <\/em>and one got dementia (caused by a stroke) and the grueling caregiving right, but it failed to move me.<\/p>\n

Four other movies got either the dementia or the caretaking wrong, and I\u2019ll write about them in my next blog.<\/p>\n

In all four of the getting-it-right films, the caregiver is a husband. That\u2019s probably just chance. Women are the care partners in Alzheimer\u2019s in two-thirds of cases\u2014daughters are as common as wives. In fact, in Still Alice<\/em> her husband cares for her at the beginning, but when he moves away to take a new job, her younger daughter takes over.<\/p>\n

Two of the films that got dementia right, Iris<\/em> and Still Mine<\/em>, are nonfiction. Iris<\/em> is based on John Bayley\u2019s memoir-biographies of his wife, Anglo-Irish novelist and philosopher Iris Murdoch.<\/p>\n

The movie is rich in context and realistic caregiving. Iris<\/em> alternates between the 1950s, Murdoch and Bayley\u2019s early days in Oxford, and the 1990s, the years of her decline due to Alzheimer\u2019s. The flashbacks allow us to grasp the intellect being destroyed, and\u2014equally important\u2014to understand the couple\u2019s unconventional relationship: Bayley accepted Murdoch\u2019s infidelities and unexplained absences.<\/p>\n

There is obvious irony in her former brilliance, independence and flair for language\u2014and her later confusion, dependence and loss of language.<\/p>\n

The movie shows Alzheimer\u2019s as it is. I was satisfied on that score.<\/p>\n

Nor will caregivers be disappointed. Bayley is by turns loving, worried and impatient. When Murdoch huddles close to him in fright after the postman rings the bell, Bayley snaps, \u201cStop nudging up to me like a water buffalo! It\u2019s only the postman.\u201d More often he is affectionate and solicitous.<\/p>\n

When he is driven by stress to explode in anger, we understand his exhaustion, and we have the context to know that years of hurt have played their part as well.<\/p>\n

Still Mine <\/em>is based on the true story of a Canadian farmer, Craig Morrison, and his wife, Irene, who is developing dementia.<\/p>\n

Much of the movie concerns Craig\u2019s building a new, more suitable house for them. In his run-in with authorities over building codes, we witness his unrelenting integrity and resolve.<\/p>\n

Craig is initially impatient with his wife\u2019s memory lapses, but like the best of caregivers, he quickly catches on that she can\u2019t do better.<\/p>\n

Their relationship of 61 years and seven children ripens and adapts with the changes that Irene\u2019s illness brings.<\/p>\n

Even this thoroughly decent and loving man eventually reaches a breaking point when he can\u2019t get her cooperation in what\u2019s needed for her safety. With honesty, the film shows the scene\u2014and its aftermath: Craig, bowed with shame. Sometimes caregiving unveils a part of ourselves we\u2019d rather not see.<\/p>\n

The most moving moment in the film for me comes when Irene says to Craig, \u201cDo you know what scares me? What if I forget everything?\u201d<\/p>\n

His reply, \u201cYou\u2019ll still be my Irene.\u201d<\/p>\n

We never doubt Craig\u2019s goodness or his devotion.<\/p>\n

The last getting-it-right movie stands out from the other three. It is Amour,<\/em> a French film about a couple in their 70s.<\/p>\n

Calamity strikes early in the movie. The wife suffers a stroke. In an attempt to lessen the damage, she has surgery, which fails.<\/p>\n

After a second stroke, she is cognitively impaired and bedridden. She has trouble talking and can no longer feed herself. Her condition and the burden of her care are not hidden from viewers. We get an accurate and harrowing picture of vascular dementia, which is similar to Alzheimer\u2019s. And the film ends horrifically.<\/p>\n

I came away from the movie shocked to realize that, in spite of watching all the piteous details of a stroke\u2019s aftermath, I didn\u2019t really care about the people involved.<\/p>\n

How do the other movies that are accurate about the effects of dementia get us to care?<\/p>\n

We know how Alice is experiencing her disease in Still Alice<\/em> because she tells us. Furthermore, we see it on her face and in her actions. She wins our compassion. The movie ends with a beautiful scene in which it is clear Alice still knows what love is.<\/p>\n

In Iris, <\/em>Murdoch, the prize-winning writer, stirs empathy throughout, especially when she reflects on Alzheimer\u2019s causing her to lose words. \u201cSometimes it frightens me and sometimes it doesn\u2019t. And that<\/em> frightens me because that\u2019s it winning.\u201d In addition, the movie exposes the deep connection between Murdoch and Bayley. Iris<\/em>is about a marriage and its endurance even when impacted by Alzheimer\u2019s. We care because they care.<\/p>\n

We feel we know the Morrisons in Still Mine. <\/em>We come to love Craig Morrison for his goodness and integrity, and we believe wholly in his love for Irene.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Amour,<\/em> following a style known as retentive realism, withholds from us almost everything the characters are thinking and feeling. We are kept at such a distance from them that they might as well be wooden dolls.<\/p>\n

All too often, people keep themselves<\/em> at a distance from dementia. I hear endless stories from care partners about friends and relatives who stay away.<\/p>\n

A movie that honestly brings us into the lives of people with dementia and <\/em>their caregivers and treats those people with full compassion allows us to see ourselves in them.<\/p>\n

Then we care.<\/p>\n

A movie that makes viewers care could bring friends and relatives back into the real lives of those living with Alzheimer\u2019s or another dementia, who so need their support.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a good reason for a film to get it right about dementia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I loved the novel Still Alice<\/em> because it was an accurate portrayal of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. And the movie Still Alice<\/em> got it right too.<\/p>\n

Read more Dementia in Films: Getting It Right<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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