My Problems With "Lovely, Still"

I am very literal. I acknowledge that.

My mother said that I had no imagination.

I think that is probably true, too.

I know this movie is fiction, but its wildly misleading

story line is just too much for me.

Robert, played amazingly by Martin Landau, is an

elderly gentleman who works at a grocery store.

He lives alone, gets up by an alarm every morning, 
and prepares himself impeccably for work--
even down to and including flossing his teeth.

One morning, however, he accidentally 
leaves his front door wide open while looking

 across the street at new neighbors moving in.

One of those new neighbors, Mary, also beautifully

played by Ellen Burstyn, is in his home 
when he arrives there after work.
Robert is understandably very upset.
Mary tells him that she and her daughter, Alex, are
the new neighbors across the street, and
she manages to reassure Robert that she was
just looking out for him.
She rings his doorbell again later and invites him to have dinner out the following night.


A very excited Robert asks his much younger boss at the grocery, Mike, to assist him in making
plans for the evening.
This sequence and others are very pleasant.



We are given only one hint of anything amiss.
Alex does not think her mother going out for
the evening with Robert is a good idea.
But go she does, and the evening is a joy to watch!


Hint No. 2 is that Robert places an X each
morning on his calendar when he awakes.
(Not much of a clue to me! I should adopt the plan!)
By day 2 or 3 he is a nervous wreck because Mary
has not called him, and he attempts to call her.
As it turns out, they were dialing each other at
the same time.
They do lots of lovely things together.

So enjoyable to this point.
And then the cracks start appearing.
Spoiler Alert
Don't read any further if you plan to watch.


Robert suffers from Alzheimer's Disease.
Mary is his wife.
Alex is his daughter.
And Mike, believe it or not, is his son.
It is intimated that Robert had previously left Mary.


The author is asking us to believe that this man, Robert,
can set an alarm, be perfectly groomed, and show
up for organized work every day
...but...
does not remember his wife, daughter, or son.
That's not the way it works.
The short term memory goes first.
At least with us, my face would have been the
last thing Jack ever forgot.


Another very disturbing occurrence to me...
A part of the story showed Mary at her home 
counting pills and coming up short on a weekend.
There is a panicky trip to the pharmacy and
call to the doctor.
The viewer assumed the pills were for her.
They were not.
She was sneaking them into Robert's medicine cabinet.
And he was taking them every day, of course!
When he had a terrible meltdown, we were shown
that he had forgotten to take one pill.
Not happening.
The pill to keep Alzheimer's victims on an
even keel has not yet been discovered. 
This, and the whole movie, is so misleading.


I must say that I did admire and appreciate the
kind manner in which everyone treated Robert.
So respectful. Reassuring.
There were also all too familiar scenes of 
excruciating misunderstanding and confusion.
So heart breaking.


Somehow the world has managed to go on turning
for 7 years without my intervention
regarding this movie.
I will admit that I watched it a second time after I
knew what was coming.
I didn't cry nearly as much.


NOTE TO SELF: 
Remember it's a movie not a textbook!



Please refer to Paragraph 1.
I just can't help myself.