Making its world premiere within the Highlight Narrative part of the Tribeca Competition, The Greatest You Can represents the primary main onscreen teaming of real-life husband and spouse Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick since 2004’s The Woodsman, they usually stay one of the best purpose to see this small however partaking character dramedy about boomers combating life passing them by. It should additionally largely attraction to that comparable demographic. Nothing unsuitable with that.
It’s exhausting to imagine the ever-young dancing presence of Footloose is now 66 and enjoying a man with prostrate issues however, hey, everybody will get older and the candy premise of this movie written and directed by Michael J. Weithorn is that perhaps it’s by no means too late to seek out one thing new to re-energize your life, even when plainly ship has already sailed.
Sedgwick performs Cynthia Rand, the 25-years-younger spouse of Walter (Judd Hirsch) who sadly is experiencing the onset of dementia, forgetting greater than he remembers. That is evidenced as a younger man doing a guide on the ’70s Watergate scandal makes an attempt to interview Walter on the topic, since he was a key individual engaged on the committee. Sadly, he has little recall of their first dialog, and Cynthia is more and more involved about him. When it seems an intruder could have been attempting to interrupt into their dwelling one evening, she errors him for Stan Olszewski (Bacon), a flailing safety officer who’s trying to enter the house by an upstairs window merely to do his job. As soon as she realizes he isn’t breaking in, they strike up a dialog that results in him asking to make use of the lavatory as he finds he has to pee rather a lot “extra continuously” as of late. Conveniently, she occurs to be a urologist and presents to assist him uncover the issue. Subsequent factor you understand, he’s face down on the examination desk in her workplace along with his pants down and Cynthia placing on a rubber glove to take a deep dive. Within the motion pictures, they name this “assembly cute.”
Time goes on, her issues with Walter’s decline continues, and he or she turns to new buddy Stan for texting conversations on nearly every part. Along with his medical issues, he’s having a hell of a time coping with his 20-something daughter Sammi (Brittany O’Grady), with whom he lives. Cynthia and Stan turn into quick buddies as they commiserate and discover frequent floor at this level in life. When Walter perks up and invitations him to affix them at a restaurant in a couple of days, Stan accepts. Nevertheless, a lot to Cynthia’s dismay, he exhibits up with a sizzling date who was a younger grocery clerk that boldly tried to choose Stan up as soon as when he was testing. A jealous Cynthia clearly has different plans for her new buddy, and one factor results in one other and, effectively, they hook up as the children would possibly say. Issues come up as life goes on.
That’s actually what The Greatest You Can is all about – two boomers connecting at a time of their lives when it seems it’s all downhill from right here. The spark between them proves in any other case, or so that they assume. That is one thing many individuals of a sure age could determine with, the inevitability of rising outdated in a society that caters to a technology to which they each don’t belong.
What makes it work is its star teaming. Sedgwick is spirited and enthusiastic in her interactions with Bacon, and he or she hits all the precise notes even when it seems she has violated the codes of her career and gotten too near the affected person. Bacon is at all times a watchable and very good actor, it doesn’t matter what position he will get, and this one matches him like a glove. O’Grady is interesting too, a annoyed daughter who can also be an aspiring singer. Hirsch does his common all-pro job ,and Ray Romano even exhibits up briefly on Zooms as a physician colleague of Cynthia’s.
Weithorn, whose credit are primarily TV sitcoms, delivers a human story that might be simply as snug on tv as in theaters as of late, and a streamer might be its finest guess. However because of Bacon and Sedgwick’s simple chemistry on display, in addition to off, it’s a pleasure to look at irrespective of how we discover it.
Producers are Weithorn, Bacon, Sedgwick, Victoria Hill, Andrew Mann, and Andrew Marvel.
Title: The Greatest You Can
Competition: Tribeca (Highlight Narrative)
Director-screenwriter: Michael J. Weithorn
Solid: Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Judd Hirsch, Brittany O’Grady, Ray Romano, Olivia Luccardi, Meera Rohit Kumbhani, Misha Brooks, Heather Burns, Victor Williams, Rob Benedict
Gross sales agent: CAA
Working time: 1 hr 43 minutes
