Film review: The Leisure Seeker
Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are outstanding as a road-tripping couple on a mission in this coming-of-age film for people “of a certain age”.
Cruising down the east coast of America in their trusty old RV called The Leisure Seeker, John and Ella Spencer are a couple nearing the ends of their lives.
Heâs got dementia and sheâs taking pills for a body in distress, so they struggle on this journey, but at least theyâre not in a nursing home or a hospital bed, which is where their children and doctors would rather see them.
Donald Sutherland plays John, a beloved ex-school teacher, and Helen Mirren plays Ella, a woman determined to get her husband down to Key West so that he can visit the home of his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway. Theyâve left without telling anyone, as if this is some great escape, but as their daughter explains to their worrywart son, thereâs probably no reason to get too worked up; John and Ella are doing what theyâve always done â trying to stay together.
The Leisure Seeker is an adaptation of Michael Zadoorianâs 2009 novel by the same name. Itâs an American book that was a hit in Italy, and Italian Paolo VirzĂŹ has directed the film.
You might like
Along with three others, VirzĂŹ also wrote the screenplay; it is predictable and full of clichĂ©s, but the film manages to get away with it. Maybe itâs because of the light-hearted telling of complex subject matter, or perhaps it is Mirrenâs and Sutherlandâs outstanding performances. If only the other actors were half as good.
Despite its inevitability, ageing is a vastly overlooked subject in cinema, and for that reason alone The Leisure Seeker is an important film. As a coming-of-age film for people âof a certain ageâ, itâs perhaps too chock-full of significant moments that teeter on sappy, but Zadoorianâs story manages to keep the melodrama in check so that the film is half-part tragic, half-part optimistic and never pretentious.
I enjoyed it, but then I have a soft spot for Donald Sutherland and want to be more like Helen Mirren ⊠and I love a film that makes me cry.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
Free to share
This article may be shared online or in print under a Creative Commons licence