Aurora Borealis
Love is the hardest job to hold.
Ever since the premature death of his father, 25-year-old Minneapolis slacker Duncan (Joshua Jackson) is content with shuffling aimlessly through life, hanging out with his lifelong friends, and ditching one dead-end job after another.
Duncan takes a job as a handyman in a high-rise that allows him to be near his gravely ill grandfather Ronald (Donald Sutherland), who's more than a handful for his grandmother Ruth (Louise Fletcher). That newfound sense of purpose, plus a budding romance with home healthcare provider Kate (Juliette Lewis), gives Duncan the motivation to take charge of his life.
Member Reviews
Aurora Borealis - Loongirl
A touching film that may remind the viewer of other films, still shines in its own light. Performance of Donald Sutherland was wonderful, witty, and REAL. This film is raw in its look into a family greatly troubled and yet somehow functional, end of life issues take the viewer through a battery of emotions and leaves you smiling in the end. Yet still I found myself drawn to the stuggle of the charaters and the resolutions they sought.Makes you think - e_j_darko
While somewhat predictable and not overly exciting; I thought this movie succeeded on a couple of fronts:
One, it dealt very well with two very real, "situations" that can occur in life, sometimes direct, sometimes indirect, because they involve someone near us.
The first of these is choices we make and the consequences thereof and the movie drives that point home very well in Duncan's (the lead) case. He wants to live in the past and his "choice" not to change, is slowly burying him in that past, with his long dead father.
The second life situation was that of Donald Sutherland's and the prospect of getting old and losing his independence. Already suffering from Parkinson's disease and what appears to be the beginnings of Alzheimers, he is left with the awful prospect of becomming a vegetable, like his brother before him and really has nothing to look forward to, except getting worse and becomming an ever increasing burden on his loving wife. Thus he ponders a way out (suicide), but when and how? An unpleasant dilemma indeed. One I'm sure we hope to avoid, but we never know, as if not us, it could strike a parent, sibling, etc.
It's these two compelling storylines and very good acting performances throughout, that earn this movie a solid three stars and I think you'll find it will make you think a bit afterwards.>EJD
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Aurora Borealis - Loongirl
A touching film that may remind the viewer of other films, still shines in its own light. Performance of Donald Sutherland was wonderful, witty, and REAL. This film is raw in its look into a family greatly troubled and yet somehow functional, end of life ...Makes you think - e_j_darko
While somewhat predictable and not overly exciting; I thought this movie succeeded on a couple of fronts:
One, it dealt very well with two very real, "situations" that can occur in life, sometimes direct, sometimes indirect, because they involve someone ...