I saw this movie a few years ago. I thought it was a very realistic approach to what a spouse goes through when dealing with Alzheimer's. It is a foreign movie. I want to see it again, now that my DH has moved further into the disease. You can get the movie at Netflix
This is a true story and as Monika says very realistic. The other excellent AD movie, in my view, is 'Away From Her.' This is the movie to watch about placement. Except that the gender roles were reversed, I felt it was very, very true to what happened to me--the spouse--when I placed DH. So much concern is given to the patient placed, but they usually adjust and develop a new social life. It is the spouse who is set adrift, alone, shut out. It's a Kleenex box movie. The woman who plays the AD part is simply perfect, awesome--down to her fingernails.
Both were worthwhile, and sad. Poignant, especially for those of us in the trenches. My only quibble about the portrayal of life with AD, in these two films, and probably for movies in general, is that they can--in no way--capture the sense of the number of years of your life that can be spent dealing with the process. Of course some AD people do progress quickly, but the sense of time conveyed in the films is very comparable to the sense of time you'd get if the topic were terminal cancer.
This is not an anti-endorsement. I recommend the movies. I was just left a little dissatisfied that the patients zipped from initial symptoms to absolute need for placement. That's not real, and--while we don't really WANT that speed of progression--once you've been at this game for multiple years, you do sort of wish it could go that fast for you.
Betty--I saw the movie when it first came out, and from what I remember, what bothered me about "Away From Her" was that Julie Christie's character (the wife with AD) decided for herself that she wanted to go into residential placement. In real life, this rarely happens--especially when the patient has a loving spouse. But I agree with you, the portrayal from the husband's viewpoint was well done.
It's been awhile but I remember A Song for Martin as much grittier in the details, sometimes shockingly so, of caring with someone with AD. I could relate more to this one than the Julie Christie movie even though I thought the performances in it were wonderful and am grateful for any portrail of AD in film. Song with Martin more intensely captured the frustration and exhaustion i(f I'm remembering correctly) of the caregiving spouse.
I agree marilynin, the wife's placing herself didn't quite ring true, but what captured me was the portrayal of the husband and what happens to the spouse left behind. Genders differed, but I identified strongly with him as my DH drifted away from me after placement, the patients & nurses became his family, he took up w/a woman he introduced to everyone as my wife, Betty Lee. The CG left alone is not usually portrayed so well, if thought of at all.
Another movie to see is IRIS, based on the life of the British author Iris Murdoch. The book "Elegy to Iris" is also good. Her husband John Bayley was a caregiver who chose to join Iris as fully as possible in her new world of AD. He must have been remarkably devoted to her. Judi Dench plays Iris (excellently, of course).
Info: Richard Eyre's film Iris (2001), starring Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, and Kate Winslet, was based on Bayley's Elegy fo Iris.
Jeanette--I saw this film with DH when it was originally in the theaters. It was a little hard to watch because at the time, we knew he might have EOAD in his future--and yep, in 2005 he was dx. Judi Dench never disappoints.