A Short History of Decay

The theme of aging parents, Alzheimers and other diseases has been literally done to death. This movie wastes a lot of opportunities to be different but just seems to wither away midway through the film....and ultimately die. It makes one wonder was what the point of rehashing this theme yet again! To put it simply.....it just doesn't work!

Watching the movie does not make one feel that they are viewing a make believe world. The director has successfully narrated the story while keeping it both realistic as well as comical. The acting of all actors is excellent. In fact getting in non-blockbuster stars has worked to the advantage of the movie as one feels more relatable to the characters and situation. Waiting for future work by this director.

"A Short History of Decay" is a funny, heartbreaking glimpse into our aging, our loves and our losses. There are so many touching moments that have stayed with me - the two grown brothers, sharing their childhood room, who have a fistfight and their mother tells them to settle down, the parents having a party with the mother's manicurist, the painting that Nathan hangs in his parents apartment. At the same time I found myself drawn to the painful portrait of the judgmental father whose sons continue to disappoint him. Beautiful and funny performances by Linda Lavin and Harris Yulin, and a wonderfully drawn sympathetic son, Bryan Greenberg. I think this film will be seen the way "The Squid and The Whale" has been seen – as an iconic look at an ordinary family.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. The actors are excellent and inhabited their characters plausibly. Harris Yulin, the father, is pitch perfect. Linda Lavin, the mother, is good but not great. My highest praise though, is for Michael Maren for writing a good story with genuine characters and pitch perfect dialogue, no tricks, and for directing in a smooth, well paced and confident style. The turning points are organic and not contrived; if we see them coming it's because we have thoroughly bought into the story and empathize with the characters, and the story goes where we would take it. It's not easy to make such a touching film without being saccharine -- Maren succeeds with grace. This is a really good film.

I'm not sure what to make of this movie. It was on the edge of being really good, but it never quite made it. That's not to say there weren't some really good things going on. The actors and their characters were good - some quite good. I really enjoyed Linda Lavin, Harris Yulin, and Kathleen Rose Perkins roles in this. The characters were well done and they actors did very credible jobs. Greenberg's character was on the weaker side - it felt like some depth would eventually come out, but nope. King as the brother was fair. Chriqui as the ex-girlfriend did a credible job, and the character was good in the beginning, and quite believable, but at the end lost any semblance of interest - and what did she do anyway? We heard law, then she appeared to be an admin, then she's writing novels? The worst character was Alex (played by Rebecca Dayan - the actress was fine, but the character was pointless). What was the point? I understood where she could have fit in, but in a movie where the plot never materialized, another subplot that went nowhere even faster was not helpful. Kind of like the artist with the painting. There was a sense that that was somehow important, but it never went anywhere.

The real drawback was the story. It never really went anywhere. Of course, it appears that it never really planned to, but the viewer is left a bit let down that nothing ever happened. At least it could have let us see Greenberg's character start writing, or doing anything to justify watching him for this long. In reality, the story just showed a lot of metaphorical decays. The obvious ones were the mother and father, literally every character's life (except maybe the Irish nurse...), the car, Greenberg's relationship, King's family, Perkins career (it seems the assumption is that she gave up her education and career to take over her dying aunt's salon), Greenberg's writing career, etc. But, within the decay, there were signs of recovery - but these seemed accidental rather than planned, and there weren't enough.

Each of these bits was well done, but there wasn't a coalescence into anything specific. Maybe that was the plan for the story. It just kind of has everything there in existence as the viewer passes through. I guess the message is that everything decays, and some things recover and some don't.

I enjoyed it, and wanted it to do more. In the end it's hard to get emotionally invested. OK to spend 90 minutes, but don't expect too much and you may have a good time.