Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by clarkjohnsen (R) on November 07, 2006 at 11:10:57

So Much So Fast -- title of a documentary I saw yesterday by Steve Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, whose previous film together was 1996's Troublesome Creek. How can a movie be so utterly heartbreaking and spiritually uplifting at the same time? Today, for me, that question remains unanswered.

Troublesome Creek concerned Ms. Jordan's father's Iowa farm, which he was about to lose. The time frame covered his last year of working the land, plus and minus some. Also portrayed were numerous family members, friends and neighbors. As an Iowa boy myself, both my parents more-or-less just off the farm, I was terrifically moved. The simplicity of the filming style (and the editing) never interfered with the subjects' voices. This great movie played on only one screen in town, for one week -- and both filmmakers are local!

Their next effort involved close friends and was filmed around Boston -- mostly in Newton, within a couple miles actually of the West Newton Cinema where it's showing (now in the second week). It's... well, let the director speak... "a project about the Heywood family in Newton. Stephen Heywood is a craftsman and builder who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), which is what Jeannie's mother died of. His brother, Jamie quit his job in California, moved east and together with Stephen's wife, Jamie's wife, their parents and others started a research foundation to expedite ALS research. They are an amazing family doing an amazing thing. They were profiled in the New Yorker and on 60 Minutes, and a lot of people have been following their progress."

Yes, Stephen Heywood. He's a valiant character no writer I think could ever conceive, and played masterfully by himself. Everyone in fact seems to be a natural-born actor -- the three devoted brothers, the wives, the parents -- even the babies! -- and there is no paradeing or primping before the camera. The narrative occurs over a period of five years and takes a number of unexpected turns, for instance into the halls of the medical establishment and the boardroom of a struggling "guerilla science" research foundation.

Actually I'm still so choked up over it, I'll leave my conclusion to Nick Schager of Slant:

So Much So Fast addresses the miracle of parenthood, time's fleetingness, the shortcomings of modern medical protocol, and the lack of protection afforded by wealth and privilege simply by focusing its benevolent gaze on the increasingly slack countenance of Stephen (forced to use technology to communicate and, later, to breathe) and the harried eyes of Jamie (who, on the brink of divorce and driving his controversial foundation into the ground, confesses, "I am aware that I am insane"). The result is a nonfiction film that seems effortlessly profound and, in its inconclusive finale (in which Stephen's fate is left unremarked upon), proves touchingly, optimistically defiant even in the face of unalterable misfortune.

This film is not in what's called wide release, but try to find it anyway. All Boston-area people: the run may end this Thursday.

The pointer has a short write-up with a picture of Stephen (who, by the way, still lives).

clark

• http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117929450.html?categoryid=31&cs=1   (Open in New Window)