Aurora Borealis

Duncan is a man in his twenties who cannot hold down any job. His father has died and since that day his life has not settled anywhere. In the middle of winter he starts doing the maintenance in the building where his grandfather lives. The grandfather is ill and getting worse. In the same building he meets Kate, who comes in to do home care. Something starts between the two of them, but Kate has plans to leave the city. Donald Sutherland plays the grandfather and the part is the best thing in the film; the man's mind is going but he does not give up his wit or his stubbornness, and he is mercilessly honest with his grandson. Joshua Jackson and Juliette Lewis are the other two corners. James C.E. Burke's film does not tell a big story; what it tells is how spending time with someone who is dying shifts a person off their footing. That is why the northern lights are in the title.