The Leisure Seeker
As soon as I first saw the trailer for “The Leisure Seeker,” I had a feeling that it was a film I definitely wanted to catch in theatres. Not because it looked visually impressive or anything like that, but it looked like it was the type of movie to see with an audience. Sadly, as the film is on its last legs of its theatrical run, Paolo Virzi’s comedic drama didn’t have many people watching it when I saw it last night, but I’m still glad I got to see it in theatres, because I’d rather see a movie the way it’s best able to be experienced rather than at home, if possible.
The film is based on a 2009 novel by Michael Zadoorian, but for some reason, the timeline was pushed to be set during the 2016 Presidential election. That might be due to expedience, or just it was when the film was made, but it feels like an unnecessary touch for Virzi and his co-screenwriters, Stephen Amidon, Francesca Archibugi and Francesco Piccolo, to have made, unless the book includes John and Ella Spencer, the main characters played here by Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren, stumbling on to a presidential rally, as well. There’s no particular political points to be made here, save for a brief exchange John and Ella have where Ella is trying to remind her Alzheimer-stricken husband about his politics after he makes his way into the center of a Trump rally, but already you can see how it’s thrown my focus off in this review by having that in there. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose for being there, but it is hard to miss, as well.
Let’s get back on track. The primary story of Virzi’s film involves the Spencer’s going on one, last road trip together before John’s mind really goes. Ella wants to take John to the Hemmingway house in Key West from their home in Massachusetts, and they go without telling their children, Will (Christian McKay) and Jane (Janel Moloney), or their next door neighbor, Lillian (Dana Ivey), where they are going. The children are freaking out, but Ella is completely in the moment with John as they drive their old camper, The Leisure Seeker, down to Florida. The trip is not an easy one for Ella, who is battling her husband’s Alzheimer’s every step of the way, but it’s an important one for her to have one, last special time with John before they are separated.
The needless political setting aside, this is such a beautiful movie about two people who love one another, and how they are tested by their age, and disabilities, at the end of their life. I think my favorite parts in this movie are when, as they stop in camping spots along the way, Ella projects slides of their life together outside on a rug they have with them as a way of reminiscing with John about the old times. On a couple of these stops, we see some of the other campers just casually watching as Ella narrates the slides for her husband, and we get a powerful glimpse of basic humanity and community at work. It’s amazing sometimes what can bring out the best in people, and the worst, and John is capable of bringing out both in Ella, not of his own awareness, but because of the way his disease in reeking havoc on his mental state. Sutherland is as great as you would hope Donald Sutherland would be in such a role, going between awareness and forgetfulness with a tenderness and pain that captures the truth of John’s life, and why it’s so difficult. Matching him every step of the way is Mirren, who is exactly as great as you would hope Helen Mirren would be in a role like this. She has the more complicated part, emotionally-speaking, and she knocks it out of the park, having to react to John’s condition, and having to be exasperated while also being committed to him, as a partner. One moment that stands out is when John inadvertently reveals something he kept hidden from Ella near the end of their journey. The way Mirren plays this sequence is why she’s Helen Mirren, a legend, and seeing how she ends up being with him, points to the painful truths about our partners and loved ones we sometimes have to accept if we truly love them.
I couldn’t help but think of my grandparents watching this movie, or even my in-laws, as they’ve gone through health struggles at the end of their lives. Rather than be anxious about it like Will- and, to a lesser extent, Jane- is, we hope that we can understand some of the choices they make at the end, when their focus might become less about treating their bodies, and more about treating their souls so that they can be at peace when the end comes. That makes the choices made by Virzi, making his first English-language film, seem less consequential, even if they’re frustrating to think about. Those choices aren’t important, in the end. This movie knows what it’s doing, and does it wonderfully.
