Well made, good laughs, tough subject.
It's a pleasure to see Sutherland and Mirren acting together, and both are excellent in this road trip of a movie. Sadly, the film runs out of steam sometime before the end, and the script weakens. Still, the ending is a surprise, and the actors do provide some happy memories after the credits have rolled.
Review by Felipe IbañezBlockedParentSpoilers2019-04-13T05:22:46Z
*Marvellously emotional movie about a truely loving old couple's final big journey*
The English movie title is misleading, the German title is much better. It translates to: "Smouldering remembrance" (there surely will be better translations, even more meeting the movie's true content).
The movie is an emotional journey about an old couple that's been married for half a century. He once was a literate English teacher and she's been giving birth to two beloved children, who have their own families by now.
The old couple's live has reached their final stage: He's suffering from Alzheimer disease and she's suffering from cancer. So they spontaneously decide to go on their last big trip, from Boston to Key West, to meet his lifetime wish of having visited The Ernest Hemingway Home once in his life - without telling their kids, who get anxiously concerned when they realize that their parents are not at home as they expected them to be.
The trip that the old couple takes is a truely heart-warming story through their past. They take their old Winnebago and head out for Key West, revisiting not only the old camp sites they visited so often before but also revisiting stages of their life and their family, being aware that this will be the last big trip they will ever have together again.
His dementia gives room for some funny moments but also for some truely sad. She attends him the best she can, but when they go back through their life, watching old slides on improvised personal slide shows they watch at their camp site stops, it's heartbreaking to realize that she will be losing him.
The movie is a great emotional roller coaster ride of a beloved couple, of loving and anxious children and how our life may be like when it will have reached its final chapter.
The movie is a so-called chick flick. Be prepared to have handkerchieves near at hand when watching it.
Me and my mom had quite a few tears dropped while watching the movie. It may have affected us more than other viewers because it kind of reflected our life. To be in the picture of the movie: I'm the demential (former?) literate driver, and she (who's even more literate) tells me where to head to and, whenever she can, she attends me so nicely (or tells me where to put it). We are laughing, talking, quarreling, and we get emotional ... And if we could have a trip like this at the end of our life, this would be one of the best final chapters I could think of for my life.
My Score: 7/10.