Tampa Film Fan

dvd review:aurora borealis

What do you think of when you hear the name Donald Sutherland?  His smart-a$$ performance in M*A*S*H*?  The memorable scene at the end of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers?  His son Kiefer?

Watching Aurora Borealis reminded me what a talented actor Donald Sutherland is.  Somehow I had missed hearing about this movie when it came out in 2005 and knew nothing about it when the DVD review copy arrived in the mail.  In one word:  WOW. 

Joshua Jackson plays a guy in his mid-twenties who is still mourning his father’s death, even after ten years.  He can’t quite get his act together and drifts aimlessly from one job to the next.  While visiting his grandparents (Donald Sutherland as the ailing grandfather with Alzheimer’s and Louise Fletcher as his long-suffering wife), he falls in love with their quirky, free-spirited home healthcare worker (Juliette Lewis, who is always free-spirited and quirky in every role) and begins rethinking his life choices.  Sutherland is magnificent as the elderly grandfather with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, who still feels like himself on the inside, even though his failing physical body has betrayed him.  He won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and the Best Actor Award at the RiverRun International Film Festival.  He deserves those awards and more.

Aurora Borealis is not your standard film about The Tragedies of Life with cardboard characters in predictable circumstances.  It’s a genuine, moving examination of the unpredictable fragility of life and the choices we all encounter.  How do you honor a loved one’s memory while moving on with your life?  Do you take a chance on love if it means leaving your lifelong friends behind and moving to a new town?  How do you live out your remaining days with dignity when illness and old age have robbed you of so much of who you are?

Despite being absolutely heart-wrenching in places, Aurora Borealis is also sweet, funny, hopeful…and WOW.  Just WOW.

Film Fan Finding: A

DVD Extras:

• interviews (three separate interviews: with cast; the writer and director; and the producers)
• audio commentary with the director, writers and producers
• photo gallery
• trailer