THE FAREWELL PARTY – The Review

Just a couple of weeks ago, the film, I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, explored and celebrated love and late in life happiness for the AARP demographic. And now, here’s the flip side. It, like the 2011 Oscar for foreign film winner ARMOUR, proves the saying usually attributed to Bette Davis, “Old age is not for sissies”. For the retirees in this film, there’s no pot parties or lunch time sea cruises with Sam Elliot to eagerly anticipate. Nope, there’s only pain, suffering, and death in their futures, along with some very tough decisions. Even though there’s little cause for the celebration, we’re invited, via your local cinema, to THE FAREWELL PARTY.

The “party” really centers around one couple. Yehezkel (Ze’ev Revach) and Levana (Levana Finkelstein) are reveling in their golden years together as they share a cozy home in a Jerusalem retirement center. They enjoy regular visits from adult daughter Noa (Hilla Sarjon), splashing in the community pool with their sweet eight year-old granddaughter, and having the space for him to have a workshop. Seems Yeh has a rep there as quite the “gadget guru”. This prompts old friend Yana (Aliza Rosen) to ask a big favor. Her dear husband has had to move out of the center and into the hospital as he is slowly, very slowly, losing a battle against cancer. She pleads with Yeh to concoct a device to bring him a peaceful, painless death. After much soul searching, he begins work on putting together a, yes, suicide machine. But Yeh is not wise in the ways of medicine, and so he enlists the aid of a retired veterinarian Raffi (Raffi Tavor) and a very reluctant physician Carmon (Yosef Carmon). When word of their efforts leak out, Yeh is soon bombarded by requests from distraught spouses. As he tries to keep his secret life a secret (and deal with his greedy cohorts), he also must deal with Levana’s slow dissent into dementia. She begins to forget names, recipes, even her clothing. The director of the center along with his daughter pressure Yeh to commit her to an assisted living facility. But the proud man insists that he can take care of his lifelong love. But how long will he be able to do this, until she too pleads for the release he and his aides can provide?

Co-directors/screenwriters Granit and Maymon guide this cast of veteran actors to wonderfully subtle performances. Revach is a growly, grumpy “grandpa” bear who bristles at becoming the leader of this band of “kosher Kevorkians”. He’s endearing while being occasionally frustrating. Yeh is an unmovable rock when it comes to his mate. He adamantly refuses to admit that her needs will soon be beyond his abilities. Finkelstein as that mate, his “grandma bear”, makes her a warm, tempering influence that calms his tirades. This makes her slow descent into darkness more tragic. Levana is soon gliding through life like a lost ghost, much as the title character in STILL ALICE. Rosen plays Yana as a formidable instigator, unafraid to butt heads with Yeh. And Tavor gives the film a touch of whimsy as the veteran vet. Granit and Maymon unfold the story with a leisurely pace, giving it a natural feel, but  allowing for a couple of brief comic moments: two separate encounters with the same exasperated motorcycle cop and an act of support and defiance that enrages the center’s director (shades of ANIMAL HOUSE!). The film makers steer clear of heavy-handed melodramatics and deliver a real slice of life dilemma. Perhaps the best accolade for the film is the possibility that it will prompt an honest discussion among audience members in case, at some point, they must think about THE FAREWELL PARTY that may await any of us.

3.5 Out of 5

THE FAREWELL PARTY opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas