Roberta Smyth

This film is very aware of itself....always watching itself. It feels false and disingenuous because of this, including the acting. The set design and costume design carry the same fault....too calculated, too stylish - in the end becoming almost narcissistic in its detail. This is a movie where the storyline and the acting are doomed to second place. The look becomes everything and everything else becomes superficial and stilted because of this. The scenes are mostly short and choppy and lack real depth because of this. It is an album of photographs, each separate and cut off from the other. The flow of great acting...the intensity of a great storyline from one scene to the next have been sacrificed to the look of this piece. Too many hats, too many carefully detailed and overly pressed ‘costumes’...too much self-consciousness suffocate the genuine at every turn.

Kelly Ripa is not a good interviewer. She talks about herself excessively, she is very repetitive. and narcissistic, making every conversation about herself. I find she offers little to the show. Ryan is a much better interviewer, much broader in his outlook and interests and is much more willing to share the spotlight. I understand why Michael left this show, he was the one who worked to bring more interesting conversation to the show but Ripa liked to take all the credit and was not willing to share the spotlight. She is still trying to control all the conversations for her own benefit but she brings so little to it herself unless you’re interested in countless stories about Botox, hair colour, and applying fake eyelashes. For a fifty year old woman she is very childish. It is not appealing and frankly boring. I hardly watch the show anymore.

This film’s approach to dementia is as dishevelled as the disease itself. It takes a very good cast and a loopy unrealistic script and shakes them together into a meaningless very convoluted movie. It has its moments but moments aren’t enough to hold things together and give them true meaning.....much like the disease reveals in itself.