BEFORE: OK, so I was kidding the other day about celebrating Carole King's birthday - I knew what day it was, but my Super Bowl Sunday is probably vastly different from yours. We tend to watch half of the Puppy Bowl and focus on some snackage, then I take a break and wait for the football game. But if I don't care about either team (like this year) then I'll fast-forward through the game and just watch the commercials, I was paid to do that for so many years that it became a habit. I'll even fast forward through the half-time concert if I don't care about the musical act, which is now a given since they book acts that appeal to the younger crowd, and I'm no longer a member.
Speaking of old people, if you do want to celebrate Burt Reynolds' or Leslie Nielsen's birthday in heaven, feel free to do that. Tina Louise turns 91 today, and she's still above ground. James Caan, who passed away in 2022 at age 82, carries over from "Kiss Me Goodbye".
And speaking of dead people who live on in movies, here's the line-up for Wednesday, 2/12, Day 12 of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar":
Best Original Score Winners and Nominees:
6:45 am "Summer of '42" (1971)
8:30 am "Easter Parade" (1948)
10:15 am "Camelot" (1967)
1:15 pm "Anchors Aweigh" (1945)
3:45 pm "On the Town" (1949)
5:30 pm "Oklahoma!" (1955)
Oscar Worthy Boxers:
8:00 pm "The Champ" (1931)
9:45 pm "The Fighter" (2010)
12:00 am "Raging Bull" (1980)
2:15 am "Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956)
Well, TCM, I don't know when your "day" begins, but usually it's about 4 am, and that last film DID win Best Cinematography, but it's also a film about a boxer, so since it starts BEFORE 4:00 am, I'm counting it as part of Day 12, not Day 13. Wait, does the last film of the day dictate the next day's category? I might have to check that out, there may be more linking going on here than I thought...
I was at 49 seen out of 128, and I've seen another 6 out of today's 10: "Easter Parade", "Camelot", "On the Town", "The Fighter", "Raging Bull" and "Somebody Up There Likes Me" - because I've done Fred Astaire chains and also focused on boxing film in the past. SO now 55 seen out of 138 takes me up to 39.8%, I'm still in this.
THE PLOT: After reluctantly agreeing to move into a home for seniors, a woman encounters a clique of mean-spirited women and an amorous widower.
AFTER: There's no question that films with older actors have a place in the market, I'm thinking about "Poms" and "Senior Moment" and "Cry Macho" and "Expend4bles" from last year. Tommy Lee Jones and Robert De Niro are still working, Harrison Ford and Robert Redford can still make a movie, Jane Fonda retired for like 20 years and then came back and was in "80 for Brady" with Rita Moreno and Lily Tomlin and "Book Club: The Next Chapter" with Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen - I just can't believe that so many actors didn't put ANY money aside for retirement, so instead I can assume that they love what they do, or else they're following their doctors' advice to "stay active". Once they stop being cast, what are they going to do with their time?
And I'm sure these actors are treated well during the shoots - they're fed well, even if they're on special diets, they get to take breaks and hopefully not work TOO many hours each day, and they're surrounded by crew and medical personnel if they should fall and break a hip or something. But still, I'm not sure at what point putting James Caan on a set and making him pretend to learn how to dance constituted some form of elder abuse. Ellen Burstyn's had a 65-year long career in TV shows and movies, but I watched her for three seasons on "Law & Order: Organized Crime" playing Stabler's mother with dementia, so that's how I think of her now, admittedly I have no clue about her mental health in real life, but here she is again, playing Helen Wilson, a woman who keeps locking herself out of her own home because she can't remember to bring the keys with her. One time she's got a pot on the stove when she does this, and that causes a fire that takes out the whole kitchen, and she's got to seek accommodations elsewhere.
(NITPICK POINT: OK, so they can't put a key outside in a fake rock, because Helen will never remember which rock has the key in it. But can't her grandson fix her door so it doesn't automatically lock when she closes it?)
She can't live with her adult daughter because they're at odds with each other, plus the daughter has a job, and her grandson's headed off to college soon, so that's out. She agrees to spend a month at the Pine Grove retirement community while her house is being repaired, however the contractors keep finding more and more things that need repair - the foundation, termites, etc. - so her time in senior living keeps getting extended. Why, it's almost like her daughter is paying the contractors to keep finding more stuff so Helen will live longer in a place where she's under supervision and closer to medical care. Say, you don't suppose that Helen, the fish out of water in this tale, will learn to make friends at the retirement home, maybe even find love (or at least sex) and eventually reverse her feelings about elder care? Well, sure, we're going to get there, but we've got 100 minutes of movie to fill, so it's going to take some time.
The Queen Bees are really just the Mean Girls from high school, only 50 or 60 years older. They're the four women at Pine Grove who run the bridge club and morning exercises and they've got their own table in the cafeteria. Helen is advised at first to stay away from them, however the movie's a bit inconsistent here because she needs to start hanging out with them to cause some drama and advance the plot. There's one Queen Bee who kind of disappears (maybe her character died, and I missed it...) so there's an opening for a fourth in bridge, but then even when Helen's accepted by two members, she still butts heads with Janet Poindexter, and we don't find out until later why Janet's always so cranky, but it's not because she smells like cheese.
Old people, they're just like us! They watch movies, gossip, they try to stay in shape, drink too much, fight with their families, plus they have access to marijuana! They also enjoy bingo, massages, water aerobics, strip poker, complaining, and once a month the home organizes the lucky dip medication switching night. Helen also works in the flower shop, and it's maybe a bit unclear whether this is a hobby or a job, but either way, it keeps her busy, and her older neighbor who helps her also watches her dance through her window, so no, nothing creepy or troubling about that at all. Just bring her a bottle of cheap wine and she'll forget all about him being a peeping tom and then consider him a viable life-mate, for however much life she's got left.
Meanwhile, Sally's cancer is back but the upside is getting better access to stronger weed, Margot decides she wants to be exclusive with BMOC Arthur, and it's OK if he can't remember her name and calls her by the name of his dead wife, and we learn that Janet has basically been abandoned by her family but hey, everything will be OK if we throw her a surprise birthday party. Why is this not an ongoing daytime drama (or reality show) focused on the daily lives of people in a senior retirement community? It could go on for YEARS as long as you keep replacing the actors when they die IRL and you just bring on new ones. How many older actors need the work to keep their SAG membership active and therefore get their pensions? And any personal problems those actors are having, you just write them into the show. If their kids come to visit, that's a show. If their kids DON'T come to visit, that's a show. What's for lunch, and how does it affect their diet? Too much fiber? Not enough? Medical issues? It's all grist for the mill...
There is a wedding at the end of this film, because the message here is that "it's never too late". Of course there are bumps in the road on the way to the wedding, but with open communication and forgiveness, we can deal with those issues, the important thing is to be married so that you don't die alone. Umm, right? Wait, if you think about it, only one person gets to die married and the other person gets to find them, and honestly it's hard to say which of those is worse. But hey, then at least the survivor gets to get married again, because "it's never too late". Until it is, I guess.
Also starring Ellen Burstyn (last seen in "The Yards"), Jane Curtin (last seen in "Marvin Hamlisch: What He Did for Love"), Ann-Margret (ditto), Loretta Devine (last seen in "Waiting to Exhale"), Christopher Lloyd (last seen in "Self Reliance"), Alec Mapa (last seen in "The Year of Spectacular Men"), French Stewart (last seen in "Dick"), Matthew Barnes (last seen in "The 15:17 to Paris"), Ricky Russert (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), Elizabeth Mitchell (last seen in"The Purge: Election Year"), Matt Lewis (last seen in "Brothers"), Marianne Muellerleile (last seen in "Sex Drive"), Bob Amaral, Courtney Gains (last seen in "Faster"), Cindy Hogan (last seen in "Beautiful Creatures"), Armani McNulty
RATING: 6 out of 10 wedding photos from random elderly couples
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