The Leisure Seeker (2018)

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

My wife and I watched this at home on DVD from our public library.Helen Mirren is Ella Spencer and her husband of many years is Donald Sutherland as John Spencer. A former well-regarded professor he now is experiencing bouts of dementia as he ages. Most days he doesn't remember much, but then will for a brief time return to normal. However the condition is progressive, they have no hope it will turn around.In an early scene her adult children are told by a neighbor she will help out when their mother goes to the hospital. We don't get any more information, except that she wears a wig, but during their trip she begins to experience her own deterioration.They have an old Winnebago in a garage at home, it is caller the "Leisure Seeker", thus the title of the movie. The story here is their own road trip, heading from Massachusetts to Key West, and she knows it will be their last trip together. They tell no one of their plans, their adult son and daughter desperately try to get them home to no avail.It is a very well-made movie but since it involves an older couple tying up loose ends of their lives likely appeals more to the mature viewer.

The Leisure SeekerThe best way to extinguish a house fire in an RV is to drive the vehicle in to the nearest lake. Sadly, the sightseers in this dramedy would just end up bickering over directions.Before Alzheimer's deteriorates her husband's (Donald Sutherland) mind, the equally ill Ella (Helen Mirren) plans to take him to visit the home of his favourite author in Florida. But to get down there from Boston, they must swipe their old recreational vehicle from dry-dock without their concerned kids noticing. En route to Hemingway's house Ella ends up learning new things about herself, her spouse and her children. While this timely adaptation of the 2009 novel is superlatively acted and brimming with heart tugging, tear-jerking, humorous moments between the mature lovebirds, the conventional script, uninspired direction, and general lack of purpose undermines the overall experience. Moreover, every RVer drives around like they don't remember where they're going. Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

These two titans of the performative arts bring to life a runaway couple setting out on a voyage in their trusty old RV called The Leisure Seeker. What starts as an expedition of fun turns quickly into a bittersweet exploration of love and memories.By far the greatest moments in The Leisure Seeker are when Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren are flaunting their talents and sinking their teeth deep into their characters. To which are grounded but somewhat fluffed up representations of the reality, none the less they are resonating depictions and still hold some honesty towards the harshly real effects that dementia has. It's through this exploration of dementia that the film achieves its most heartrending moments, delivering touchingly melancholic lines of dialogue, punched home by the effective subtleties of the winning performances from Mirren and Sutherland. Both convey the love and challenging nature of this sort of relationship and help bolster the poignancy of this story, even though it is certainly one that has been explored with more finesse.Sutherland's character is key to understand the messages behind the films normality, as he speaks of Hemingway and the falsely perceived banality of his simple writing technique. There is certainly a case to be made here for that perceived banality of these characters, challenged by the show of memories and John's (Sutherland) life before the illness. Mirren's cartoon accented Ella still holds all the complexity that drives the plot forward but stifling the growth and journey of the two leads is the uneven direction. As though the film is caught between arthouse deeply personal story of dementia and Adam Sandler's latest flick. It's never quite sure of what it wants to be, and the feel-good tone makes it all the more confusing, resulting in a unengagement with a good portion of the film.This unengagement leads to a natural sigh of boredom as you watch the film push its clumsy emotional manipulation, but none of it lands or swoons. Thankfully there are certainly a few select moments that truly are tear-jerking, saved by an enthralling ending that leaves the film on a high note at the least. While The Leisure Seeker is unsure if it's seeking leisure or something more insightful, it does deliver on the most part in being a touching exploration of love and more importantly dementia and the effects it has, with two outstanding performances that are wasted on stale direction.

'THE LEISURE SEEKER': Three Stars (Out of Five)A comedy-drama about an elderly couple, suffering from Alzheimer's and cancer, that decide to go on one more road trip together, in their RV that they call 'The Leisure Seeker'. The film stars Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren, in their first costarring roles since 1990's 'BETHUNE: THE MAKING OF A HERO' (in which they also played a married couple). It was directed by Paolo Virzì (in his first full English language film), and it was scripted by Virzì, Francesca Archibugi, Francesco Piccolo and Stephen Amido (based on the 2009 novel of the same name, by Michael Zadoorian). The movie has received mostly negative reviews from critics so far, and it's also gotten a limited indie theatrical release at the Box Office. I found it to be mildly amusing at times, and touching, but it's also ultimately predictable and a little cheesy. Ella Spencer (Mirren) is sick with cancer, and her husband John (Sutherland) has Alzheimer's. They know their time is coming to an end soon, so they decide to go on one last road trip together. They take their vintage RV, which they call 'The Leisure Seeker', from their home in Boston to The Ernest Hemingway Home, in Key West. Along the way they have some special moments together, one last time.The movie is definitely highlighted by Mirren and Sutherland's performances, and their great chemistry together. They really do seem like a genuine couple that's been together forever. I can see why older people would enjoy the film, and I definitely liked parts of it. Other parts are pretty silly though, and the movie at times even feels more like a sitcom than a serious drama. The film is also really predictable, and not really that memorable. It's decently made though, and enjoyable to an extent at least.