What Time Is Left

In What Time is Left, first-time director Dakin Henderson ponders quality-of-life issues while filming his octogenarian grandmothers. Grandma Deedee is an active and vibrant woman who gives speeches before nursing conferences on geriatric care issues, while Grandma Polly is in an advanced stage of dementia and can neither speak nor move freely (the two women lived in the same seniors' complex). Polly's decline was a painful experience for the family, and Henderson's father notes how she “died every day a little bit for 10 years” before eventually passing away. Deedee, who experiences a health scare during the course of the film, uses her remaining time to ensure that “do not resuscitate” legal paperwork is in place. Running concurrent to this narrative is the story of twentysomething Henderson's own brush with death—he collapsed and stopped breathing for two minutes during a Frisbee game, although subsequent medical exams were unable to determine what happened, and he had no evidence of physical damage. While the production considers weighty subjects, Henderson's filmmaking is a bit too slapdash, so that instead of a serious portrait on life's fragile nature, the documentary sometimes comes across as an overly ambitious home movie. Optional. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)