A daughter struggles to convince her elderly father to check
her Alzheimer's-suffering mother into a retirement home.
Directed by: Elizabeth Chomko
Starring: Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon, Robert
Forster, Blythe Danner, Taissa Farmiga, Josh Lucas
With its mental illness adjacent plot, What They Had is the
sort of film that might be dismissed as a 'Disease of the Week' TV movie
that has somehow attracted an A-list cast. With its televisual aesthetic and
refusal to grapple with its subject in any depth, it's easy to sneer at, but
thanks to a strong ensemble cast, writer/director Elizabeth Chomko's family drama makes for a pleasant watch. The question is, should it
be?
Robert Forster and Blythe Danner play Norbert and Ruth
Everhardt, an aging MidWestern couple whose struggles with the latter's
Alzheimer's condition are becoming increasingly difficult. When Norbert
wakes one morning to find his wife has disappeared in the midst of a
blizzard, he calls his long-suffering, local-based son Nicky (Michael Shannon), who in turn calls his sister Bridget (Hilary Swank) in a
desperate plea for help.
Living across the country in California has sheltered Bridget from the
harsh realities of her mother's mental health. Arriving in the MidWest with
her moody teenage daughter Emma (Taissa Farmiga) in tow, Bridget gets
a first hand glimpse at the struggles her family have been undergoing in her
absence. Nicky has been trying to convince his father to sign Ruth into a
retirement home, where she can be looked after by professionals, but Norbert
stubbornly refuses. Can Bridget convince him, if she's even convinced it's
the right course of action herself?
In recent years, Swank has become very selective in her roles, so much so
that you would be forgiven for believing she had retired from acting. As
talented an actress as Swank is, I'm not sure she was the best choice for a
role which mostly plays to her dramatic strengths but occasionally veers
into the sort of awkwardly comic moments that a Sandra Bullock might have
been better suited to. A comedic interlude in which Bridget dons her
mother's nicest blouse in a cringe-worthy attempt to seduce an old classmate
feels like it belongs in a very different movie, but elsewhere Swank reminds
us just how watchable she can be. The same goes for Shannon, and the movie
is at its most engaging when the two siblings are shooting the breeze
together, catching up and playing the blame game at the same time.
So engaging are Forster, Swank and Shannon that it's easy to overlook the
elephant in the room. Despite the movie's plot revolving around the mental
state of Danner's Ruth, she's sidelined in favour of her family, and
What They Had is too often a movie in which people discuss the
fate of someone in the next room. It's all a bit 'Does she take sugar?',
failing to give Ruth any agency until a late moment where she suddenly
becomes improbably cognitive so she can spell out the film's theme in a
short saccharine speech.
At one point Ruth walks in on her family as they are embroiled in a heated
argument over what's best for her. She's shuffled out of the room while
Chomko's camera remains with her bickering family members. A more sensitive
drama would have followed Ruth out of the room, perhaps after having entered
said room with Ruth in the first place. Had Chomko given the key character
in her drama a greater role, rather than dismissing her as simply some sort
of unwanted nuisance, What They Had would be an easier
recommend. As it is, it's a perfectly pleasing time-passer, but one that
does little to further onscreen representations of mental illness.
What They Had is on Netflix UK
now.
