What They Had

Christmas night. Ruth walks out of the house and is lost, and there is a blizzard outside. She is found. Her son Nick says this is the last warning; his mother has Alzheimer's and can no longer be cared for at home. His father does not accept it. Burt has known his wife for sixty years and counts leaving her at a care home as betrayal. Nick calls his sister Bridget. She comes from California; her own marriage is bad, she is at odds with her daughter, and she avoids deciding. The family gathers in the kitchen. Nobody wants the same thing. Elizabeth Chomko writes and directs; it is her first feature. Hilary Swank plays Bridget, Michael Shannon plays Nick, Robert Forster plays Burt and Blythe Danner plays Ruth. It is an American production. The film screened at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Chomko wrote the screenplay out of a situation in her own family. The matter it treats is the decision; the illness is the ground, and the actual subject is who decides and who carries it. The narrative builds Burt not as a stubborn old man but as a husband refusing to lose. The character Michael Shannon plays is the source of the humour; hardness and joke sit in the same lines. The narrative does not dwell on the illness itself; Ruth seems well in most scenes and that makes the decision harder. Its limit is familiarity; the family drama runs its known steps and there is no surprise. Who it is for: viewers who like family drama and films built on performance. Who it is not for: the subject is heavy, the narrative conventional, and the ending sad.