En sång för Martin

I am quite familiar with Alzheimer's Disease. Both my mother and grandmother had it. To me this movie shows that love is useless when it comes to Alzheimers. Eventually the sufferer forgets everything.

While a respectable movie, it is not exactly dramatic or innovative. I felt that I was being told something that I not only already knew, but had lived through twice already and probably will go through myself.

However, I was interested in how the Swedes care for Alzheimer's patients. At least Martin didn't have to die in the horrible nursing home that my mother lived and died in. It helps to have money and socialized medicine, I guess. Do you think I can immigrate to Northern Europe before I get the disease?

It is my understanding that when a man and a woman get married, it is because they love one another and promise to be loyal and faithful. Despite the fact that many marriages are no such thing, it is wonderful to see a film that convinces you that it is possible to love someone so much that no amount of adversity can destroy it.

That is the essence of this film. It is true that we learn a great deal about a horrible disease, but, more importantly, we learn what true love is. The drama in this film really takes place in the mind and the heart of Barbara, the wife. She must face the changes in her life from the joy of finding true love in her life after a difficult marriage to a life of dealing with a sick husband. We see her, painstakingly, deal with change after change and sometimes she breaks down because of the enormity of the challenge.

The second lesson we learn in this film is that love brings a real sense of perseverance. Caring for a sick husband is really no different than caring for a child. A mother normally does not lose her love for the child because he or she acts like a child, but, rather, she perseveres because of pure and simple love.

I do not have sufficient words to express the beauty of this film. It rings true.

A story about deep love and how it can overcome any obstacle. Barbara's and Martin's love is put to the test when their doctor diagnose Martin with Alzheimer's disease. For Martin, as a famous composer, it gets more and more difficult to finish an opera due to his sickness, which also strains his relationship with his wife Barbara. Her love and constant reminiscence of their past makes her treat him as fully healthy for much too long.

Both Viveka Seldahl as Barbara and Sven Wollter as Martin are making a wonderful performance in the leading roles. Seldahl is able to use her face the show any kind of expression as the disease turns her beloved husband from a hardworking composer to a bedridden hospital patient. It is nice to finally see her in a leading role. And Wollter is thoroughly credible as the man suffering from a disease that slowly but surely will take his senses from him. We as the audience should ask ourselves if the man finally admitted to hospital is the same man Barbara married. The tragedy of Alzheimer's disease face us with a question if somebody's personality has something innate that will withstand loss of memory or dementia. To Barbara, at least, it is clear that Martin's illness does not change what she feels for her husband: love.

Also worth accolades is the beautiful score by Stefan Nilsson.

Very very nice movie. So nice. Be prepared to cry. But its nice.

While `A song for Martin' is a powerful movie, it is also a sort of impotent one. One of the hobbyhorses of my high school literature teacher was to make us understand the difference between what is tragic and dramatic. A car accident is tragic. A car going over a cliff driven by someone fulfilling his inescapable destiny is drama. Alzheimer's is a tragic disease, but it is not drama. Unavoidable is not a substitute for inescapable. You cannot have drama without participation while participation is the last thing you can expect from someone suffering from the disease. This is a very well made movie. Acting is superb; cinematography is fine. I learned from it everything I would ever care to know about Alzheimer's, but I still left the theatre with an empty feeling. The story is sad, the loss is painful and love conquers everything but I had no revelations. I received information, from which I only gained knowledge, not real gut wrenching understanding. I never cared much about acted documentaries and this film never really rose above that.

`A song for Martin' has a very promising start. Passionate love at the age of 50/60 is full of dramatic potential. For a while I thought that is what the movie will be about, but I was wrong. There are hints of dramatic conflict but they are never explored and from the moment Martin is diagnosed, the story turns purely didactic. Dealing with such a situation also has dramatic potentials but this movie choose to concentrate on the evolution of the illness. Is that bad? I don't know, but gaining this sort of knowledge is not what I expect from art.

Should you see this movie? I think so. You will learn a lot about the illness most of us fear the most. Just do not expect more. See it for what it is: an animated illustration of the disease. For that, it is perfect.