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In Elliot Greenebaum’s first feature, which was shot in three actual rest homes, poignant images of old-timers coping with the title facilities provide the setting for a day in the life of Todd (Michael Bonsignore), a hash-smoking slacker handyman who has an oddly romantic relationship with one of the clients, Mrs. Pearlman (Maggie Riley). She’s suffering from the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s; he wants her son in Australia to come and get her, but he finds himself more and more assuming the son’s role. Todd’s given to calling patients up and pretending to be deceased relatives in Heaven, or letting the home’s golden retriever run off into the surrounding fields, but he finds his capricious stunts have consequences. And as he and the audience discover, the elderly aren’t the only ones who need assistance with life. Greenebaum avoids fuzzy platitudes, and his use of real patients and staff adds an element of genuine pathos and dignity, but his fusion of real life and fiction tends to blunt the edge of both. (77 minutes)
BY PETER KEOUGH
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