READ THE ORIGINAL NYT MAGAZINE ARTICLE

March 13, 2005

Letters

David Grand's article (Feb. 27) focuses mainly on whether nursing-home residents were competent to consent to participate in Elliot Greenebaum's film "Assisted Living" and whether they were portrayed unfairly in it.

My husband and I think the film was on the whole caring and respectful. We know that our own parents would have greatly preferred being in a movie to some of the other "activities" or the inactivity that residents often experience. The critics who question the residents' capacity to make such a choice are implicitly rejecting a key point of the film — that even those who are impaired by age have humanity that should be respected and appreciated. In the film itself, that humanity enables Todd, wonderfully played by Michael Bonsignore, to stop hiding behind pot-smoking and alienation and to develop a real, empathetic relationship with an early Alzheimer's patient, Mrs. Pearlman (the superb actress Maggie Riley).

We think the film should help all of us to better accept the aged and the aging that we all must face.

Joan and Mark Weiss
Chevy Chase, Md.

The idea that they need our paternalistic protection is all part of the prejudice against the old. For those in assisted-living and nursing homes, control of their lives is given up bit by bit. It starts with their physical beings and, if they become ill, eventually extends to every aspect of their lives. But everyone tries to hold onto some sense of self to the very end. It seems that Elliot Greenebaum gave the people in his movie some control back, separate from the regulations they must live with in assisted living.

Imelda Fagin
Brooklyn