DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Kirsten Johnson (12A, 89 mins)
In a bid to prepare herself and her father for the latter’s death, documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson takes a very unusual approach: filming his decline in various ways with dad an active participant, to the point of getting him to lie in his own coffin. Dick Johnson is a much-loved psychiatrist who has succumbed to the early inset of dementia. His memory loss has increased and he is forced to move from his old home to live with his daughter in New York, so she can look after him as he deteriorates.
The documentary movingly shows his gradual descent, all told with winning humour and with the father very much a part of the proceedings, accepting this strange state of affairs, the documentation a coping mechanism. What follows is a rich portrait of a father and daughter facing the inevitable. Dick’s wife had also succumbed to dementia, glimpsed in footage of her at her worst – but the person she was, the vibrant wife and mother, are also remembered. Kirsten uses fantasy sequences to illustrate what might be going on her father’s mind: the joys of memory, dancing with his wife, having his deformed feet cured by Jesus? A haunted house set is constructed to re-enact a Halloween where her dad got lost while out trick-or-treating with the kids.
At times it can feel a tad self-indulgent, but dementia affects many families and this fantastical method – celebrating a life via a twisted take on the situation – feels universal. Stuntmen step in for Johnson as he falls down stairs, is hit by a falling printer or gets whacked by a construction worker, the jets of blood all captured by his daughter. The film joyously reminds you of what life is and how the memories of a loved one live on, even if they themselves do not.
Available on Netflix now
words KEIRON SELF