"What They Had" is a 2018 drama movie, directed (and written) by Elizabeth Chomko, staring Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert Forster, and Blythe Danner.
The plot surround an aging couple in Chicago, that the wife (Danner) has dementia, and her husband (Forster), a devoted Catholic, cares for her at their Chicago apartment. The movie begins when the wife wonders off home in the Chicago cold winter, and the daughter (Swank) (who is married and lives in California) is called to come and help her father and brother find her mother.
After the mother is found, wondering in one of the poor (and dangerous) neighborhoods of Chicago - a family dispute erupts: the son wants to move his mother to a memory-care facility, while his father totally resists, and stand up to his wish to continue and care for his wife at home or in Florida. The daughter finds her self in the middle, while having to face the deterioration of her mother's cognitive abilities. All key actors play extremely well, especially the mother (Danner) who very professionally plays the tricky part of an older woman with mid-stage dementia.
To begin, I must admit that I was not objective: I just finished a wonderful year in Chicago - and this movie was filmed in Chicago...so naturally, I had a positive bias (... there aren't too many popular movies filmed in Chicago...).
But beyond this initial bias - I watched the movie with my wife (to ensure credibility and reliability of my review) - and we both loved this movie (and we both cried a lot).
This is a "classic" gerontological movie that not only focuses on the issue of dementia, but rather encompasses the whole range of aging challenges: family care; love; burden or care; gender; morals and ethics, life course; home v. institution ....you name it - almost every aspect of aging has some reflection in the movie.
The beauty of the movie is that the story is convincing: it does not fall into any stereotypical picture of aging or old age, and it does not try to portray dementia as a single or coherent situation. Even the traditional gender roles are reversed: the husband is the one that cares for his wife, and the son is the primary care-giver (and not his sister).
See it and use it in your classes.
Year: 2018;
USA
Director: Elizabeth Chomko
Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6662736/videoplayer/vi2127149849
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