We lived in NYC when I was growing up and my grandmother lived in Birmingham, AL. At some point my parents became concerned about grandma’s forgetfulness but realized they had to take action after she went to the Birmingham airport and demanded TWA (remember them?) fly her to NYC first class because she was Queen Elizabeth II of England. She made such a scene it made the local paper. My parents were embarrassed at the time but we all laugh about it now. I agree with @Gourmetmom laughter can be the best medicine. Especially when you get a little distance from the situation.
I can’t think of anything my MIL has done while she has had Alzheimer’s disease that is funny. Perhaps because she was never a smart person and didn’t say or do funny or interesting things when she wasn’t ill. Things she has done: put a ceramic pie plate on a hot burner and the pie plate exploded; regularly tried to get garbage out of the garbage disposal; thought that my FIL (her husband) was a criminal and was trying to hurt her; regularly stuck her hand into the recycling bag and rummaged through it; refused to be bathed; went several weeks wearing the same clothes (i.e., she refused to take them off).
I can’t think this will be worthy of a comedy.
Still Alice was terrific, poignant and hit highs and lows.
But a comedy? Sorry…
I haven’t read Still Alice, but I loved Elizabeth is Missing. Very much told from the point of view of the person with Alzheimer’s. I found some of it really quite funny at the time. Except for my mil - I would say that all of the parents of that generation did not have bad ends despite the fact that they all lost their mental facilities to some extent. We had to steal my husband’s parents car because my mil would not stop driving despite losing her license. She actually (badly) forged her old license. (She knew she would be all right because she always prayed before she drove.) My husband’s Dad would not stop her. He’d been operating at less than full gear for years, but really should have put a stop to it, but that was not their dynamic. But yes, kids stealing their parent’s car. It is sort of funny.
I spent a LOT of time around people with dementia when I was working, and although the situation on the whole is sad, there can definitely be comedic moments.
In fact, my godmother died a few weeks ago; she and my mother and their husbands were the best of friends for over 50 years (she was the only surviving member of the four of them). My godmother’s daughter told me in the end that her mother thought the daughter was my mother (who died over ten years ago) and they had lots of great, funny conversations, and the daughter just went along with it. I can only imagine what she might have said to ‘my mother’. They were always laughing. When someone with severe dementia is so detached from reality, it’s less traumatic for them and those caring for them to just go along with what the ill person thinks as opposed to trying to correct them. And they can be thinking some pretty wacky things - it’s just part of the illness.
I was much more afraid of dementia before I worked with this population than after. I realized that, as long as you have good care, for the most part, it’s always much harder on loved ones than it is the patient. Many of them just become ‘pleasantly confused’, and don’t really know what’s going on. Sometimes I think I’d rather have the kind of terminal illness where I’m not really aware of what’s happening to me. And again, if they’re in a good, caring environment, there are lots of medications that can ease any anxiety and/or mood disorders that can come with dementia. I’ve seen many, many (the majority) of patients be very well-managed.
I have to say - yes it really can be for the above reasons people have already pointed out. It will indeed take a really good writer to pull this off however.
My aunt had early-onset. Instead of running their cutting edge charter school and travelling, she and my uncle spent 22 years as she faded to a living ghost, and he could not/would not leave her side. People who met the alzheimer’s patient never knew the woman who carved us vases for Christmas, who sang at her mother’s funeral, who rescued dogs and taught math. He grieved the whole 22 years, and has grieved in the decade since her body finally gave up the fight. Grief is rarely funny.
Additionally, we have TWO friends with traumatic brain injury. One has no short-term memory, period. Her mother had to quit her job to help in her care. She will never be able to live alone, but she’s an only child with multiple handicaps. Her parents feel guilty sometimes that they didn’t disconnect her when they were asked to, and have trapped her in this life. How can that be funny? Our other friend is permanently about 16, and is perpetually sad that she can’t pass a driver’s test because of her memory issues. Also will never live alone, have a job, a boyfriend…
When patients and families find a light moment, that’s grace. When other people make fun of it, or find it humorous, that’s cruelty. The 1950’s world of telling people to be “good sports” and “not be sensitive” in order to have fun at other people’s expense is GONE. gone, gone, gone. I hope the movie tanks. (And I have never found Will Ferrell or SouthPark funny, and I won’t apologize for that.)
When patients and families find a light moment, that’s grace. When other people make fun of it, or find it humorous, that’s cruelty.
@greenbutton - ^^That was really well said.
I can’t imagine this movie doing well. I also don’t know too many people whose lives have not been touched by Alzheimer’s or some variation of dementia. My step-father suffered from it and it took it’s toll on my mother. She kept him at home with round the clock assistance at the end of his life. There were times when we had some laughs with him in the last few months, but there was nothing comical about his suffering.
I have close friends who are going through this with parents , as well as a few who have lost their parents to this horrible disease .
I really hope this film tanks at the box office.
http://pagesix.com/2016/04/29/will-ferrell-pulls-out-of-reagan-alzheimers-comedy/
Looks like the outcry against this film worked. Ferrell is pulling out of the project.
“Still Alice” is poignant and very well done. I think losing one’s mind has to be one of the very toughest things–to the patient and all who know and love him/her. Of course there are a few light moments, but mostly it’s simply heartbreaking.
Glad to hear that this ill-advised film may be aborted.
Glad to hear they will abort it, there is nothing comedic about dementia or Alzheimers in the way a comedic movie would present it. I can understand that within a family dealing with something horrible like Alzheimers how humor can come from it, that is a way to try and make a horrible thing a bit more human, it isn’t entirely unlike how within some families humor can help with the grieving, but that is different than an outsider using the disease itself as a point of humor. Making fun of Reagan, or any other politician, is one thing, but not about the disease that took his mind then his life.
My mom had non-Alzheimer’s dementia, and she was fricking crazy at times. When she was alive, there were some things she said that were pretty funny … but there were many more that were so very sad. Six years after her death, my brothers & I can find humor as we reminisce about some of the things that happened, but it is a humor that is tempered with sadness. It is a very personal sort of humor, and others cannot truly understand. I think it would take an amazing writer to present this appropriately, and it would not be in a film that was a comedy … rather, it would be lighter moments within a more serious movie.
He should also apologize and donate money to research. As far as I’m concerned, the only reason he withdrew is due to public outrage. And Elf was one of my favorite movies of all time.
^^^^Maybe the public outrage caused him to reflect upon it…
@marybee333, I agree about the need for an apology and a donation to Alzheimer’s research to back up Ferrell’s words. I still get choked up thinking about my dad and how he suffered, both when he was still aware that his mind was going and later when he believed he was once again a POW.
No, it’s not funny. It’s possible to make a poignant film with moments of gentle humor about lots of un-funny diseases–cancer, ALS, Alzhemer’s, etc…but to make a film that attacks a public figure via a disease he/she had no control over is tasteless and mean spirited. My own mother suffered from Alzheimer’s for 20+ years and it was devastating.
Perhaps that’s why I was disgusted when Michael Moore exploited Charlton Heston’s obvious cognitive decline during the interview in “Bowling for Columbine”. Don’t get me wrong…I despise the NRA and gun violence…but it was clear to me that Heston was deep into Alzheimer’s at that point and doing his best to be gracious during the interview.
Since none of us has seen the script, and apparently none of its critics, it’s hard to judge. The reports I saw said it was highly regarded and may have been very good. I would have liked to see the movie.
Doesn’t matter how great the script may have been. Reagan wasn’t diagnosed with Alzheimers until years after he left office. To suggest that he spent part of his presidency with the disease is rewriting history and meant to dishonor him specifically.
If the script is so great and original it can be re-written to be generic–but “Dave” was already made into a movie 1993.