It could be called “On Slacker Pond.’ Young pothead Todd spends his days as a janitor at a well-run nursing home, swabbing the floors, sneaking away to light up a bowl, and trying to ignore the quiet desperation of the elderly around him.
But he’s a decent slacker, and Todd (Michael Bonsignore) soon gets drawn in by the pleadings of Mrs. Pearlman (Maggie Wise Riley), who sees him as a replacement for the son who abandoned her.
“Assisted Living’ is a remarkably moving look at the prisons in our midst that most of us manage to ignore until we need them. Nursing homes, even the brightest and most sincere, can be depressing places for a society celebrating youth. Movie cameras rarely venture inside.
But talented writer-director Elliot Greenebaum forces us to look at another form of prison-within-prison: our aging bodies, and how they betray our intentions when we’d like nothing more than to escape the harsh reality of growing old.
Some have questioned the way “Assisted Living’ uses documentary footage of residents in the Kentucky nursing home where Greenebaum shot his feature. Greenebaum mixes the real pictures with scenes of the actors in his story, but he never tricks us – it’s clear when he has pulled back to offer quiet, respectful viewings of daily life in the home. The residents and the staff actually come off quite well, doing their best to improve an inherently bad housing situation.
At first, Todd’s lighthearted attitude toward the patients may seem like he is toying with them. He tries out their wheelchairs, makes phone calls on an extension to those who want to talk to God, interrupts their chapel service. But his attitude quickly becomes refreshing: He refuses to pander or change his behavior under the assumption that every resident must be coddled as hopeless. He makes the human gesture of acting like himself.
While there is a soft tone to Greenebaum’s work, he doesn’t lapse into sentimentalism. Things don’t always improve, even when people make a conscious decision to help. Once we hit the wheelchair, it’s hard to turn things around. Greenebaum at one point appears to be leaning toward a dramatic, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ ending for his characters, but he is far too realistic for that.
“Assisted Living’ shows just how challenging the later years will be for all of us.
Staff writer Michael Booth can be reached at 303-820-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com.
“Assisted Living’
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NOT RATED with scenes of drug use, mature themes|1 hour, 17 minutes|SLICE OF LIFE|Written and directed by Elliott Greenebaum; starring Michael Bonsignore, Maggie Wise Riley, Nanci Jo Boone and Mallory Jo Boone|Opens today at Regency Theatres at Tamarac.
