Love Is Not Always Easy, But It Is So Rich!

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2004)

Having gone through the struggle of advanced dementia with my mother-in-law and seeing a strong, independent, woman lose her mental faculties before her death at 91, I was intrigued and drawn to see this movie. It has its flaws, but it is a wonderfully romantic story of truly committed, special, and long lasting love. It speaks of love in the good times and in the tough times. I fell in love with the character played so delightfully and with such energy by young Pamela McAdams as she reminded me so of my wife of 46 years as a young woman. My mother-in-law was a very high spirited and beautiful young woman of the late 1920s and early '30s. So, for me, the transition to the Gena Rowlands character was easy to follow and the struggles she had so paralleled the experience of my mother-in-law who ended up in a similar facility. I want to be the kind of husband James Garner portrayed as he supported and loved his wife in her time of confusion and aloneness. The window that opened before she withdrew so suddenly from him was real, one we experienced. The person loses contact, but windows open that are amazing and then suddenly close. Yes, her dementia was probably beyond those windows, but still it gave us a glimpse of the reality of this situation. That scene where Garner struggled with her rejection and disappearance from the present was breathtaking. He was wonderful. And yes, Rowlands looked a bit too good for reality, but she is a wonderful actress and I could get by that. The ending was totally fanciful and I would have preferred to have seen it closer to the reality of life. But, I cried a lot in this film as I so identified with Garner's character realizing I or my wife could face this in a few years. It was a very special demonstration of the love marriage calls us to at any age, walking through the struggles together in committed and loving relationship. I highly recommend the movie, but bring the Kleenex.