The Leisure Seeker stars Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland in a cinematic adaptation of a novel by Michael Zadoorian. It is also the first English speaking film directed by Paolo Virzi, an Italian director whose work I do not know. It is about an elderly couple on their final road trip from Wellesley, Massachusetts to the Florida Keys to finally see the Hemingway House.
When I saw the previews, I wanted to see The Leisure Seeker in the theaters, but it lasted one week in one theater then lasted another week at a different venue. That lackluster showing made me realize that it could wait until it was available for home viewing. Only devout fans of Mirren and Sutherland should attempt to watch this hollow, predictable gambit to appeal to older viewers by insulting their intelligence. Within the first few moments of the movie, I knew exactly how it was going to end. The only surprise in this movie is that it ever shifted focus to their adult children and friends to depict their reaction to the couple’s journey.
Without giving away too much about the plot, a perfect example of The Leisure Seeker’s failings is its superficial masked as arm’s length objectivity treatment of American politics and the emotional landscape of the nation, which lacked credibility. As someone who actually lived through the never ending presidential campaign of 2016, which immediately morphed into a nightmarish hellscape campaign of 2020, I know how I should feel when those events are depicted on screen. RBG and The Gospel According to Andre, two documentaries, chronicle those moments and nail the atmosphere accurately, particularly the latter, which is the best documentary of the year. In this movie, one scene is barely noticeable, a blink and miss it walkthrough in a hotel lobby, and the other moment is sort of a backhanded dismissal equating a Trump rally as a sign of dementia, ultimately childlike and amusing. A truck with a Trump sign is driving through an affluent, liberal community, which either indicates an act of aggression, a minor invasion designed to ruffle feathers or a proud act of belligerent distinction of one’s identity from one’s neighbors. The movie’s tone is emotionless and flat. I don’t watch movies to feel nothing. There is a difference between no judgment and no understanding or an inability to convey any message.
It is possible that The Leisure Seeker tried to capture the calm before the storm, the highs and lows of a country made of a patchwork of people, Syrian immigrants at gas stations, black literature loving waitresses, Hispanic staff at the campgrounds, a multiracial celebration, helpful bikers or young ruffians. There seems to be a deep melancholy about how elusive and transitory the simple pleasures of life are-snacks becoming obsolete and life becoming more expensive. Unfortunately in order to do so, we have to be as enamored with the couple as some of the strangers who encounter them. When you go camping in your RV, is it customary to look at strangers’ slideshows? I genuinely don’t know. This way of life is totally foreign to me, but it was not long before I stopped finding the couple endearing and considered them dangerous, spoiled and entitled. They constantly wreaked havoc then expected others to clean up the mess or help, which most people did. They seemed inconsiderate, and while arguably the husband had an excuse for his lapses in mindfulness, the wife did not. We’re all dying. Are we sure that the wife did not also suffer a parallel mental disability as her husband because she was definitely not a responsible guardian of herself or others.
The Leisure Seeker’s central point harkens to the spirit of Hemingway’s work, “defeated, but not destroyed.” I know that as a viewer, I am supposed to feel triumphant at how they decide to seize the reins of their life from others and write their own story, but other than theoretically, I never felt that way. They seemed miserable, and at least if you’re being irresponsible in your embrace of elderly adolescence, i.e. abandoning the concerns of adulthood and having a second adolescence ruled more by emotion and id (not giving any fucks), I should feel some level of joy. I never did except when the husband crashes a party and is accidentally separated from his wife. In spite of their coos that they always want to be together, they seem happier apart.
I adore Mirren and Sutherland, but their work promoting The Leisure Seeker was more effective than their performances. I wish that the filmmakers departed from the book slightly and made the wife from the United Kingdom instead of South Carolina. Honestly the most memorable moment was by Jerald Jay Savage as the Hotel Receptionist who seemed so alert and personable that he stood out and did not seem like another passerby easily forgotten at the next adventure. Another shout out goes to Joe Hardy Jr. who plays an elderly home manager who is always ready to close a deal. I also enjoyed all the cats at Hemingway House!
I’m really disappointed by the movies targeted to older Americans. The Leisure Seeker is symptomatic of the lack of quality. It is as if the filmmakers think that they are incapable of absorbing anything serious without being melodramatic. French filmmakers are much better at finding beauty in the prosaic and making the ordinary momentous. The emotional palette in this film is like Bette Davis’ makeup in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane-broad and unappetizing. I think that it is possible to contemplate mortality of the spirit, mind and body without rushing from one vignette to the other or minimizing it by making it seem romantic. Call me strange, but I want more moments that deal with the logistics of how a spouse helps the other spouse who pees himself. Even when we get the multiple scenes of the wife trying to wrangle her husband into simply ordering a meal at the restaurant, she seems more delighted at his incapacity and dependence than when he makes a connection with another person. I know that she is supposed to be jealous of his deeper roots with the intellectual world, but it came across as spoiled. She wants to be the focus of attention of her husband and strangers. If that was the author’s intent, then I suppose the filmmakers succeeded.
The Leisure Seeker is ultimately too afraid to fully resonate with audiences by plumbing the emotional depths of its material and the implications for the rest of the nation. Not every movie can succeed like Forrest Gump. Stop trying to shoehorn everything into a pat, tidy, happy ending. Life is supposed to be ambivalent. It should be sweet in your mouth as honey, but bitter when digested.