Being diagnosed with dementia can indicate memory problems, thinking abilities, and difficult social interactions. Finding words and having problems with communications, getting lost while driving, trouble solving problems or organizing, poor coordination and confusion are common. People may exhibit depression, anxiety, and agitation, show changes in personality, have hallucinations, and show paranoia. Many people cope with a family member or friend who has dementia. Almost seven million people aged 65 or older suffer from this series of diseases and their experiences may seem drastically different. All are difficult to handle.
Thankfully two young men, Dillon Bentlage and Simon Kincade, became friends on the campus of Boston University and established as a writing team to make movies in such far away places as Holland and Australia, the latest being an informative and sensitive one entitled “Watching Mr Pearson.” Filmed in Guilford, Connecticut, it is a true family affair with Dillon serving as both co-founder and producer, his wife Dominika Zawada playing the role of the caregiver Caroline in a caring and creative way, how closely it relates to his personal grandmother and that his parents invite Dillon to shoot his movie in their beautiful home on the water.
Dillon utilized his own family experiences in Shelton to frame his film. focusing on a successful Hollywood actor Robert Pearson who suffers from a double loss, that of his career and the development of dementia. The bond between Robert and his caregivers, Caroline and Miguel, played by Luis Rizo, is touching and fragile, exhausting and difficult, at times horrible and at others unbelievable humorous. As director Dillon Bentlage movingly portrays how the progression of the disease affects Robert’s safety and sanity, equally difficult for the person struggling with the diagnosis and for the caregivers adjusting to the changing personalities of the patient.
For Caroline, she uses creatively restated scenes from Robert’s beloved old movies, with costumes and props, and dialogue, to try to reach him and pull him out of his emotional darkness and give him some of his old joy again. By contrast, Robert’s other caregiver Miguel does not share Caroline’s vision and wants to keep his treatment in a safer zone, more by the conventional books. Both must embrace patience if they can ever hope to succeed. They are the single resources most directly on the frontlines of this highly emotional battle.
This story and the devastating toll it takes on the patient and the family is all too familiar. The patient’s behavior can dramatically change, as a calm and loving person can demonstrate violence and anger. They can remember events and people from decades ago and forget what happened five minutes in the past, and ask again and again where they are and how they got there and how they will get home.
For actor Hugo Armstrong who plays Robert, the film is a learning lesson, a valuable lesson in its telling symptoms and how it affects the whole family irrevocably. Called “an actor’s favorite actor.” he has played every one from Uncle Vanya to a character on “Will Trent,” on “NCIS,” ‘Monk,” “Blacklist, detectives to lawyers, and also as writers and producers in the industry. Sam Burlington plays the young Robert, a Texas born actor and producer who fondly remembers growing up in front of a small tv watching movies. He too has been featured on such shows as “Will Trent” and “NCIS” and “Fallout.” Dominika Zawada’s Caroline is an international actress from Poland who captures the sensitivity of her role as caregiver in a sweet and charming manner. No person in her family has dementia but she was involved in the script at all the drafts. It opened her eyes to the different approach to care and now she is seeing the disease everywhere. For Luis Rizo, the male caregiver Miguel, he has known Dillon since being his roommate in college. They share a love of movies.
This project is clearly a labor of love. Dillon and co-writer Simon have already collaborated on films in the Netherlands and Australia. Dillon’s dad Autonius came to America from an old seafaring family in the Netherlands in 1993 and has been involved in pre- and post- editing. He even offered Dillon the use of his home in Guilford to film the movie, moving out with his wife for two months to make it easier. The set was so wonderful the house is like a character in the movie. When Dillon initially approached Hugo with the script, Hugo didn’t think he was right for the part. After reading the script and seeing its possibilities Hugo got to the last page and called Dillon to say it was “Wonderful.” Hugo found it “unexpectantly beautiful, achinging exquisite” and he couldn’t wait to go off to the races.
For Dillon Bentlage, this independent film set in one location, telling the story of one character and his personal struggle, shows his many lives and how he learns to know himself again. Watch for screenings across the country using links to watchingmrpearson and ktpictures.com. Let “Watching Mr. Pearson” open a door to dementia and how it affects the patient and the family and friends in profoundly personal ways.
