From Omeleto.
A woman travels the multiverse.
Nellie is a woman coping with Alzheimer’s, being taken care of by her devoted and loving husband, Lou. But Nellie’s dementia has an unlikely side effect — it sends her time-traveling through different dimensions, in search of her husband.
Throughout the dimensions, Nellie encounters a variety of settings, people, and situations that she’s convinced she doesn’t know, and she adopts different personalities to cope with the strangeness, from a Jewish mob boss to the action hero of her grandson’s student film. Nellie must think fast, act natural, and keep calm, no matter what version of her life she’s dropped into, all in search of her husband and her sense of love and belonging.
Directed by Ian Wexler from a script co-written with Ally Condrath, Jake Miller and Jake Mann, this free-wheeling dramedy is an absurd yet heartfelt story about home and family as an emotional compass, even when all else is confused or frightening. It uses the notion of time-traveling through multiverses as the springboard for a wildly inventive take on dementia and Alzheimer’s, but it never loses the emotional core of a woman trying to navigate a hazy sense of place and time as she searches for her beloved husband through it all.
The story’s central premise is that Nellie’s mental lapses in memory are actually her time-traveling through different dimensions, and the rollicking storytelling propels us through a madcap variety of genres, situations and stories. Nellie and the film shapeshift through crime dramas, horrors, broad comedy and more; it’s incredibly fun for viewers but bewildering for Nellie, who has to adapt her persona and demeanor. In each situation, she encounters people who feel strange to her but insist they know her, and she oscillates between wanting to escape and wanting to find her beloved husband. As her search continues, her distress heightens, and the swerves and pivots of the multiverse become more frightening and surreal.
Through it all, actor Caroline Aaron’s masterful performance as Nellie anchors the film, no matter where it finds itself. Aaron hits all the broad comedic notes, playing each incarnation of Nellie with conviction and relish. But she never loses sight of her deep love and need for her husband, and this love propels her on her journey through the different dimensions. This enormous love — one that keeps her tethered amid the film’s chaotic journey — makes Nellie a nuanced, complex and touching figure, one we root for to find the warmth and belonging she so desperately seeks.
4TH DEMENTIA is a wild ride and often a lot of fun to watch as it romps through an assortment of characters, situations and tones. But its stylistic high-wire act is balanced by a deep and sincere respect for Nellie’s emotions and experiences, and by an overarching sense that the mindscapes of those suffering Alzheimer’s and dementia are more complex and rich in ways that we may never understand. To call them delusions would be to simplify them and render their bearers with less respect than they deserve. Even though the mind’s miasma, they still know, long for and deserve empathy, kindness and love — which they still feel, wherever they are.
4TH DEMENTIA. Courtesy of Dinner for One at https://youtube.com/@dfor1.
