Since I started this column I have been asking people for suggestions for movies about older people’s housing to include, and many suggested Up, which I’d never seen. From talking to friends and looking online, I know lots of people love this movie and consider it one of the best movies from Pixar, the studio that produced classics like Finding Nemo and Toy Story.
Well, sorry to be a downer, but I hated Up! I have tried to stay positive in this column as I looked at different movies about older people’s housing. I’ve praised tragic arthouse classics and light comedies, documentaries and sitcoms, great art and middling entertainment. But this animated feature has broken me. This movie sucks!
Up is about Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner), an older man who feels lost in a rapidly changing neighbourhood after the death of his wife, Ellie. Rather than move into residential care, he decides instead to fulfil a lifelong dream by travelling to South America. To do this, he attaches thousands of helium balloons to his roof and flies his whole house there – giving new meaning to the phrase ‘moveable unit’. Assisted by a boy scout who is truly going above and beyond to earn his ‘Assisting the Elderly’ merit badge, a (cute!) talking dog and a colourful bird, he has to drag his house the last few miles while dealing with a moustachioed villain who’ll do anything for the glory he feels entitled to.
All that’s fine, I guess. It’s a perfectly serviceable plot for a family cartoon.
However. However! The movie – about the ways our past can drag us down – is itself weighed down with cloying sentimentality, especially in an excruciating opening stretch that tells the life stories of Ellie and Carl over about 15 dialogue-free minutes. Many fans of the movie consider this an incredible artistic achievement. Personally, I could do without miscarriage scenes in my cartoon comedies. Carl himself alternates between being an ageist stereotype of a cranky old man and a seemingly fit and healthy superhero who can achieve incredible physical feats.
In my opinion, if you’d like to see a movie about an older man who sets out on a ridiculous action quest after his wife’s death leaves him bereft, you should watch Remember, with Christopher Plummer avenging his wife by hunting nazis.
But who am I kidding? I know lots of you would like this movie! More power to you. But if you have any suggestions for better movies on the theme of older people and housing, please send them in!