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"In the past year I&amp;#039;ve seen two exceptional movies that deal with the difficulties of aging. I&amp;#039;ll try not to give too many spoilers in my descriptions, but both were wonderful and I&amp;#039;d like to spread the word, so here goes. In Away from Her, Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant Anderson (Gordon Pinsent) have been married for many years. They&amp;#039;re a good-looking, seemingly robust couple\u2014until Fiona becomes aware that her memory is slipping away and decides to enter a nursing home before things get worse. As she and Grant adjust to their separation, their lives take some surprising turns. The tone of the movie is sometimes wry and realistic, sometimes heartbreaking, and the actors (including Olympia Dukakis, whose character figures unexpectedly in Grant&amp;#039;s life) are first-rate. The Savages is a humorous take on a dysfunctional family. Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco) deserted his family years ago; now he&amp;#039;s rapidly failing, and his children Jon and Wendy (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) are forced to do something about it. There&amp;#039;s a kind of awkward humanity in their scenes together, especially when the emotionally detached Jon clashes with the manic Wendy. (Here, too, the acting is superb.) As they figure out what&amp;#039;s best for their father, they gradually begin to understand what they want from life themselves. If you have experience with Alzheimer&amp;#039;s, as my husband and I do (in our fathers), there are moments in these films that will be all too familiar. You&amp;#039;d think that would be the last thing I&amp;#039;d want to see on screen, but I guess I was looking for something to identify with, or some kind of release. Away from Her made me cry, The Savages made me laugh\u2014and both made perfect sense. As more and more of us turn 40 and come to grapple with the big issues, I imagine we&amp;#039;ll see more movies like these. I hope they&amp;#039;ll be as memorable.\u2014Diane Oatis Read More: Olympia Dukakis talks about Alzheimer&amp;#039;s Have you had a similar experience with an aging relative? Tell us about it in Comments. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a40823/when-memory-fails-6064/>