Film #055 - Almost Home (2006)
Viewed February 24, 2006
Almost Home is a documentary that centers on the Saint John’s On The Lake retirement community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as it tries to re-invent itself with a new focus on quality of life for its residents. Although it covers many different people in the environment, the main focus is on manager John George and three resident/family groups.
Edie and Lloyd Herrold are driven apart by Lloyd’s Parkinson’s Disease. Edie seems unable to cope with Lloyd no longer being the driving force in the relationship that he once was. Lloyd seems lost without Edie at his side, as she has remained in Independant Living, while he has moved to the Nursing Home. Edie methodically shuts Lloyd out of her life, while he struggles to find new sources for his needed companionship.
Dolores and Bob Haig face a similar problem, with Dolores’ Alzheimer’s Disease forcing the end to the active life she and Bob had lived together. Despite causing friction with the staff, Bob insists on trying to maintain as much normality as possible, including a daily routine and going out regularly. Despite his realization that the woman he knew is slipping further and further away from him, he refuses to let her go.
Finally, there is Arienne Balser and her daughter, Amy Blumenthal. Arienne has suffered a stroke and is constantly at odds with the staff over the way she is treated. Amy tries to help as much as possible, but finds herself stretched thin due to her obligations to her job and family.
I suppose for some people the images found in Almost Home could be upsetting. It is not always easy to confront aging and this film doesn’t hide the more uncomfortable aspects. For me, it was easier to take than I expected. This may be due to the years I helped deal with my Grandmother as her health declined. I faced so many situations that I could never have imagined, I suppose I have become somewhat de-sensitized to them. But their problems are never presented purely clinically. They come across as real struggles that the audience can feel.
But I don’t want you to get the idea that Almost Home dwells on the negative. In fact, if there is an underriding theme, it is how full life can be for those in any condition or situation. This comes off most clearly with the Herrolds, as Edie’s distance leads Lloyd to take up with a fellow Nursing Home resident. Life is not over for him, by a long shot.
The other theme would be how difficult it can be to change not only how things are done in an institution as old as St. John’s, but how to change the mindset of its workers. This is what we see mostly with John George. He is striving to focus on making life for St. John’s residents more like a real home and less like a hospital. Almost Home is able to make the struggles that he faces clear, so the audience can really see what he hopes to accomplish and what obstacles stand in his way.
In my job working for the University of Rochester’s School of Nursing, I regularly need to view educational or documentary works. Few of them offer the kind of engaging experience that warrants watching them in full. None have been as entertaining (while still being informative) as Almost Home. Serious, funny, heartbreaking, heartwarming. Almost Home runs the gamut in much the same way we do in real life. I can’t ask more from any documentary.