davidtraversa-1 Review of Man in the Chair

Man in the Chair (2007)

Very important issue: Old Age and inevitable invisibility. What next?

[5/10 · 25 November 2010]

I won't criticize this movie, since others had done it superbly. It's just a couple of issues I'm interested in. First one: I find praiseworthy to make a movie with very old people. The world population in general is getting older, and even so, we continue to avoid the issue. We are terrified by old age. But if we continue to live, we'll get there, whether we like it or not. So, better start to face reality, the sooner, the better. This issue is so very well presented with the character of the gaffer (Christopher Plummer) and the script writer, that it gives you the creeps. Their loneliness (old folks become invisible to society), their aimlessness in life (they lost their jobs to retirement without finding a healthy replacement for it), and all of a sudden, by chance, this young boy comes across their sunken lives (elderly homes) and gets them to help him to make a 10 minutes movie. All of a sudden, people that were almost growing moss out of their ears, become alive, they have a motif to live for now!! the whole bunch of elderly people starts making projects, and with their lifelong experience in their profession, they put together a remarkable film (the producer --Robert Wagner-- is very impressed with the final result). Now, the painful question: The 10 minutes film is done, are these old folks going back to their miserable living at the elderly home? wouldn't it have been better for them that the young man never came their way? after all, they were resigned to that life. But now what? This question makes me think that EUTANASIA should be legalized so when we decide that enough is enough, we can take our own life, at the precise moment we think it's better.