Sunset Story (2003)

Better Late Then Never

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I have to be honest, at first I wasn't looking forward to watching this documentary. I thought it would be depressing because of its subject. But it was quite the opposite. These ladies made me feel good about growing old. They're bodies may not be as willing as they once were but their minds sure as heck are. They are more full of life than some people I know who are in their 20's. They are opinionated, active, and hilarious. Former activists, and well current activists as well, living in a retirement home called Sunset Hall, which is a retirement home for the "free-thinking" elderly. These two women share a friendship, that didn't start until they both moved into the home within weeks of each other, the likes that some people will never ever have. This is a great heartwarming story about being old, but having a spirit that never ages. A lot can be learned from this movie. I really enjoyed it a lot more than I ever thought I would and I think you will to. Lucille and Irja are funny, intriguing, and simply beautiful, and so is this film.

This enchanting and somewhat melancholy documentary chronicling the last stages of life for two elderly women named Irja(81) and Lucille (95 who have become best friends after being placed in a retirement home for aging left wing radicals. Though just as a backdrop, Sunset Hall (the retirement home) provides a unique stage to see how the last years of life for the two women is played out. Sometimes sad, other times so full of joy that you pause while watching considering your own mortality, and the dignity that our elders deserve. Such a stark and real look at our humanity in its last stages that for anyone I think this film is a must see. For me, the funniest portions were watching Irja's upbeat optimism constantly coming in contact with Lucille's dry, cynical eye. Hee larious! Check it out, it's worth watching.

The previous review does a good job summing up the plot points. What I want to impress upon you (regardless of ideology) is the magnitude by which this film celebrates friendship. These poor, elderly (but rather active and funny) women that find a reason to live in each others company. It was endearing to hear the old timers quick quips and loving smiles. Their genuine care for one another and minor bickering were all cushioned with an underlining deep love. The joy in the film is watching the comradely between the ladies as they make their journey through their last leg in life. A true testament to friendship and friendship as an invaluable asset to life. Obviously these women knew that they were rolling downhill, but rolling downhill doesn't mean you can't throw your hands in the air and have a little fun with the ride.

Formed in 1923, Sunset Hall in Los Angeles is a retirement home with a difference; all the residents are former political activists of one form of another and the residents are mostly quite active in local protests and still try to be active. We enter the home to meet Irja and Lucille, two elderly women who came to the home within two weeks of one another and hit it off pretty well. We look at their relationship over the years and the other residents in this most unusual retirement home.I'm not sure why these two ladies were selected but they were a good choice for subjects to show what Sunset Hall is all about and who the residents are and were. The film is not that well structured but it does well to let us get to know these two people reasonably well and to the point where we do like them and care about them. I'm not sure what the film's point or agenda was but to me the film was about having respect for the elderly – it is too easy to assume that they are used up and finished and to ignore them in order to ignore our own mentality but this shows us they are just people. Of course, pretty much any home can do this and I did used to volunteer in a local old people's home when I was younger, spend time with anyone and you learn things – regardless of age. So it is just as well that the film also had the hook of being set in an unusual home – whether or not the home is that good an idea or not (seemed to me that arguments were only ever seconds away!) the people there do seem happy with it.Irja and Lucille are both very warm people who is very easy to care for and you do get into their stories. The direction is unobtrusive but nothing fancy, mainly because it seemed happy to let the subjects speak for themselves. Overall this was a pretty good film for what it did well; show us real people and get involved in their lives to the point where we could learn something form them. The lack of structure is a bit of a problem since it doesn't appear to have a point to make but then Irja and Lucille make up for that by simply being themselves.