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Intimacy in Later Life

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08Oct

A Kind of Madness

The one-line description of this movie most often used to describe it goes like this: “A 70-year-old man abducts his wife from her retirement home and goes on the run from their adult children.” The trailer for the film dramatically reinforces that description.
10Aug

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

With its central premise of a pharmacological solution for memory restoration, the Apple TV series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Bahrani et al., 2022) is the most recent and detailed exemplar of the second narrative category.
10May

The Great Escaper

Based on a true story, the film details the efforts of 89-year-old WW2 British Navy veteran Bernard Jordan to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in France.
30Nov

80 for Brady

“It’s better than I expected it to be.” That’s what I said to my wife after we finished watching 80 for Brady. From the preview clips (which one should never trust), I expected some ditzy rendition of four older women friends taking a trip to see their hero, Tom Brady, play in the Super Bowl.
19Oct

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

With an acerbic script by British writer Katy Brand and Australian director Sophie Hyde at the helm, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande has a modest premise.
21Jun

Lousy: Love in the Time of Dementia

This brief, thoughtful, and intriguing video by Frank Silverstein shares 3 years of visits with his parents, Joe and Lynn Silverstein, as they age-in-place in their home.
18Apr

Love Limits

Love Limits is a transcendent film about the unique loving relationship shared by Cory Ann Rudy, age 36, and Warren Barrow, age 83. In addition to the difference in their ages, they differ in other significant ways. Cory is a White woman from a farm in upstate New York; Warren is an African-American man from Brooklyn.
30Sep

Ask Dr. Ruth

By speaking publicly and frankly about sexuality, Dr. Ruth Westheimer helped untold numbers of individuals overcome impediments to healthy sexual pleasure. The new film, Ask Dr Ruth, chronicles her long life, from her early childhood in Germany, to her current very active professional life.
17Sep

Another Year

Another Year, written and directed by Mike Leigh in 2010, is the singular and exceptional example of a film that portrays an older married couple without resorting to the traditional story line structured around a threat to the relationship.
17Sep

Le Weekend

Another way to dramatically explore the character of an older spousal relationship is to locate the conflict within the relationship itself. The 2013 film, Le Weekend (written by Hanif Kureishi and directed by Roger Michell), does this quite effectively.
17Sep

Something’s Gotta Give

An older wealthy tycoon (played by Jack Nicholson) dates only younger women until he meets the mother of one of them (yes, played by Diane Keaton) and eventually realizes what he’s been missing in a relationship.
17Sep

And So It Goes

This film spins a story of later-life romance using hand-me-down dialogue, story line, and characters. (Even the title lacks imagination.) In this woeful film, Michael Douglas plays the typical angry older (but youngish looking) adult whose wife has died.
17Sep

Love is All You Need

In the Danish film, Love Is All You Need (Bier, 2013) a very similar story unfolds—newly found romantic connection in the context of the wedding of children. An anger-holding long-time widower attends his son’s wedding in Italy, and while there becomes increasingly attracted to and then deeply in love with the mother of his daughter-in-law to be.
16Sep

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Saving the worst for last, the sequel film, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel should only be seen if you have exhausted every other diversion available to you.
16Sep

Friend Request Pending

Friend Request Pending is a refreshingly unique short-sketch film that features a few hours in the life of an older woman making an online connection with a desirable man.
07Sep

Innocence

The one other film that deals authentically with late life marital intimacy is Innocence, produced and directed by Australian filmmaker Paul Cox in 2000. Like Hope Springs, Innocence addresses the issue of lifelessness and resignation in the relationship of an older couple.
Movies About Aging and Elderhood