Cauldron

Issue date: 4/21/05 Section: A & E

Media Credit: www.assistedlivingthemovie.com Blinded by the light, actors Michael Bonsignore and Maggie Riley co-star in Elliot Greenebaum´s latest film, "Assisted Living," out in limited release.

Media Credit: www.assistedlivingthemovie.com Director Elliot Greenebaum

Although Elliot Greenebaum is less than half the age of most of the characters in his first film, "Assisted Living," he created a short but sweet film that realistically portrays nursing home communities by fusing different genres and elements.

The story is seen through the eyes of Todd (Michael Bonsignore), a 27-year-old nursing home janitor. Set in Meadow View, an assisted living facility in Kentucky, Todd escapes boredom by smoking pot at work. He amuses himself by playing friendly pranks on many of the residents, adding a comedic element to the film.

Todd develops a friendship with Mrs. Pearlman (Maggie Riley), a resident of the nursing home who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Eventually Mrs. Pearlman begins to mistake Todd for her son.

Greenebaum began filming the movie when he was 22 years old as a student at New York University's film school. Although Greenebaum said the movie began as a short film, he turned it into a full-length feature over the course of two summers. The film was shot in five different retirement homes in Greenebaum's hometown of Louisville, Kenn.

While the plot itself is a bit generic, the film's style, as well as its conventional and unconventional execution, makes it a breath of fresh air. At times the film gives the impression of pure fiction. However, in some moments it comes across as a "mockumentary" much like Christopher Guest's films, "Waiting for Guffman" and "Best in Show."

The film also does a good job of blending comedy and drama. Many of the scenes in "Assisted Living" are humorous, particularly when Todd makes prank phone calls to residents pretending to be deceased loved ones. However, it is also unsettling and disturbing to watch the nursing home residents hooked up to machines in deteriorated states looking sad or depressed.

Greenebaum said the purpose of the contrasting images was to display the reality of society.

"I think we actually forget how crazy the world is--totally crazy," Greenebaum said. "Anything that is weird, I put in the movie because the world is weird."

Only a few characters in the film, including Bonsignore and Riley, are real actors, while most members of the cast were actual residents of the assisted living facilities where the film was shot. By using a minimal amount of actors, the film often blurs the fine line between fiction and documentary.

Greenebaum said that as an inexperienced director, he found it difficult directing elderly people and getting them to do a good take. However, he said the use of the residents was a vital part in conveying how Americans deal with the aging process.

"It seems like if you show an old person in a film, they have to have control," Greenebaum said. "As opposed to what really happens, which is that we fall apart."

Greenebaum said there is no category for his film. "It's only a social convention what counts as documentary and what counts as fiction," he said.

Although the film received critics' praise, Greenebaum said that there are aspects of the film he could have been done better.
"I have to prove myself to the invisible critics inside my own brain," Greenebaum said.

There are several themes that are central to the film, but Greenebaum said he hopes viewers take whatever message they feel from the film.
"['Assisted Living'] is true in the way that impressionism is true," Greenebaum said.

Craig Husted contributed to this article.

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