The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club

I saw this movie last evening at the Philadelphia Film Festival. It is that rare unusual movie made for adults. The film takes place in an active adult community in Florida. It shows members of a bereavement group as they regain their lives. The film is mature and well done. Don't go it you want the usual geriatric old people jokes. It treats death and new love with great sensibility.

There were opportunities to poke fun at the elderly but this film takes the high rode and shows them as real people. The scenes of finding love the second time were tender and well done. The audience responded in kind and responded well to the filmabout the film

It is rare to see this sensibility in a film were all the actors are over 60. It is well worth seeing.

"Old age is not a disease—it is strength and survivorship, triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses." Maggie Kuhn

Our perception of seniors in the media has recently been formed by Jerry Seinfeld's parents in a Florida retirement community. They and their aging friends are unrelentingly argumentative, early-bird dining Jewish retirees who look and act old. Susan Seidelman's Boynton Beach Club, however, will have none of that old stereotyping.

As if they were older siblings of the emerging boomer solipsists, these seniors are generally vital, best exemplified by Dyan Cannon's lithesome body but suspiciously tight face, Sally Kellerman's lean and sensual mien, and Brenda Vaccaro's vulnerable enthusiasm. All have reason to be down, for they have lost their spouses but are gaining friends to share their grief with and possibly their lives. Enter the objects of their search for companionship, among others, Joe Bologna's Harry and Len Cariou's Jack, the former a self-proclaimed ladies' man, the latter a shy recent widow lacking skills to cope with mature women.

Unlike the seniors in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, Manna from Heaven, In her Shoes, and Golden Girls, the principals in Boynton Beach only occasionally resort to jokes about their age or ailments and prescription drugs, the ties that bind elderly everywhere but here are minimized by one reference to Viagra and one to old men who are not even ogling women when they drool. Here the seniors are actively living and loving, something the rest of the world does as well.

This dramedy is as satisfying as an afternoon drink on the veranda with a favorite granddaughter, at which happy occasion there is cause to celebrate being alive and connected between generations with nary a nod to senility.

Director/co-screenwriter Susan Seidelman is to be congratulated for a movie based on a generation just about totally forgotten in the movies today: seniors. "Old age is not for sissies" says one of the Tshirts in the movie which mainly takes place at a retirement centre in Florida.

Unfortunately it is pretty formulaic with a few truly poignant moments scattered throughout - enough to engage this viewer and hope for more.

Sadly, they remained just a few. Striking performance by Brenda Vaccaro, what a delight, Len Cariou in one of his best performances and Joseph Bologna showing vulnerability. The rest of the cast are more notable for their surgical procedures which border on truly grotesque in the cases of Sally Kellerman and Dyan Cannon.

Maybe one of these days there will be a movie made showing seniors as they really are, with a truly good plot not centred around snaring a man or woman to make them feel complete. And without the distracting trout pouts favoured by far too many.

Not likely, I know.

6 out of 10 for daring to be different.

I saw this movie, shown to a packed house and introduced by the director, Susan Seidleman, at the Philadelphia Film Festival. The audience, including me, loved it. It's funny and touching. It's so rare that a movie portrays the lives and especially loves of the older generations with anything approaching this level of authenticity and charm. Wonderful performances by people you love and don't see enough of. The movie used music to excellent effect as well. A bit of trivia -- the director's mother, who lives in the real Boynton Beach development for "active seniors," suggested the story and actually wrote the first draft of the screenplay as well as produced the movie.

I saw this movie in Deerfield Beach, Fla. on the same day I visited relatives in Boynton Beach, two towns and about 10 miles north. It was highly recommended by these relatives. The story centers around a bereavement group consisting of seniors most of whom (about 8 out of 9) are females. The movie concerns the problems of dating and (what else?) sex, and it handles this pretty well, following three principal characters through their struggles and doubts. It tackles the problems of getting back on ones feet after the demise of a spouse, and perhaps starting a new relationship. The movie addresses the problems of both the men and the women, and does so thoughtfully and sympathetically. I thought there were a few false moments, contrived for effect, but on the whole it was an honest movie which held your attention throughout. The acting was fine, and I would single out Brenda Vaccaro for her fine acting. I rate the picture as a eight (very good), though I am tempted to add more points because it refrains from demeaning older folks and their problems.