Robin's Wish

Directed by Tylor Norwood, this documentary sets out what actually happened at the end of Robin Williams's life. Williams died by suicide in 2014, and only at autopsy did doctors learn he had diffuse Lewy body disease, with the neuropathologist who performed it calling it one of the worst cases he had seen. Two months before his death he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's, which was wrong; he sensed something was badly off but never knew what it was. Lewy body dementia is notoriously difficult to diagnose because its symptoms present as a wide and seemingly unrelated range. His wife Susan Schneider Williams chose the film's title, drawn from his answer when she asked what he wanted his legacy to be: he said he wanted to help people be less afraid. Four years before the documentary she published a personal essay in the medical journal Neurology describing his ten month decline, the memory loss, the insomnia and the paranoia. The film explicitly pushes back against media speculation attributing his death to drugs or money trouble. It holds ninety percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with the one substantial criticism being that it leans so heavily on his widow's perspective that it loses objectivity. Who it's for: Anyone wanting to understand Robin Williams's final period and how hard neurodegenerative illness is to diagnose. Who it's not for: Not for viewers unprepared for themes of suicide and cognitive decline.