Fred Won't Move Out (2012)

FRED WON'T MOVE OUT  (2012)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Richard Ledes
    Elliott Gould, Fred Melamed, Stephanie Roth Haberle,
    Judith Roberts, Mfoniso Udofia, Ariana Altman
Elliott Gould plays the Fred of the title, an old guy still hobbling around the country house he's lived in forever with his wife Susan, who's slipping away in the fog of Alzheimer's. Susan (Judith Roberts) needs more help than she can get at home, even with a full-time caregiver, and their kids have arranged for them both to move into an assisted-living facility in the city. Fred doesn't want to go. What this movie quietly gets right are the everyday details that go with aging, and the tough, real-life decisions faced by elderly parents and their middle-aged children. There's a kind of intimacy about the way the camera moves through the house that makes you feel like an eavesdropper, or a member of the family, letting you know how daunting a stairway can be for somebody on old, wobbly legs, and the agonizing amount of time it can take to maneuver an invalid from a bed in one room to a chair in another. Gould in his 70s seems a little young yet to be playing Fred - you'd like to see what he could do with a role like this in about ten years - but Roberts is unforgettable as a woman who still has flickering moments of joy, but whose cognitive wires no longer connect. Anybody who's had to deal with very old loved ones will find something to relate to in this. Anybody who hasn't but might in the future would do well to watch and take notes.