The Leisure Seeker

In Italian director Paolo Virzi's first English-language film, Brit Helen Mirren and Canadian Donald Sutherland star as Ella and John Spencer, an elderly American retired couple who escape in their 1975 Winnebago Indian RV, which Ella has dubbed "The Leisure Seeker."

But this time they're not looking for relaxation. They secretly leave their Wellesley, Massachusetts, home where dad had been a beloved English teacher, much to the consternation of their adult children, an unhappily married professor daughter and a closeted son.

South Carolina native mom, popping pills and enabling her confused husband, wants to get him down through their old Eastern Seaboard vacation spots to Key West to see his hero Ernest Hemmingway's home before he lapses into complete dementia.

The screenplay is based on Michael Zadoorian's 2009 comedic romance novel and is co-written by Virzi, Stephen Amidon, Francesca Archibugi and Francesco Piccolo, but the film is not funny. It's predictable, and, aside from the stellar leads, poorly acted and paced. The dialogue and action are repetitive; at each campsite, Ella projects a slide show for John to see if he remembers the names of his children and family friends. When he has a glimmer of recognition, she observes that "it's so nice when you forget to be forgetful."

John isn't quite as sundowning as he is always unpredictable, morning and night, focusing on hamburgers and on-the-nose sixties music while he grapples with incontinence and the growing frustration of a mind slipping away, his faculties escaping along with the campers.

Ella treasures his fading moments of lucidity, she's "so happy when you come back to me," but it's not enough to string together a sad reflection of aging Americans.

If Neil Young were in this soundtrack, he would advise, "It's better to burn out than it is to rust."

DVD special features include a "Making Of," where Mirren appreciates the story's combination of comedy and tragedy, and the fluidity of louder, looser "Italian directing." She characterizes the project as "an Italian film in the English language." Virzi adds that he never expected to make a movie entirely in another country.

Sutherland says that Virzi "infected me with delight."

"In Conversation" features the stars taped after a screening for Screen Actors' Guild actors, so the first question was "When did you get your SAG card?" (Both got theirs at MGM studios.)

Mirren characterizes the script as very profound and expresses her excitement to have worked with director Virzi and co-star Sutherland. The stars had performed together almost 30 years ago on the film "Bethune," and Mirren was pleased she could tease Sutherland this time around since she had achieved equal stature.

The pair became reacquainted when rehearsing the script, then spent hours in the van together with the Italian crew "squashed in behind us." They actually drove the camper and complained about the bad brakes. Mirren thought that having a European eye on an American story brought freshness. The Italian crew were really open to everything, "except American pasta," said Sutherland.

"It's a view into a part of a culture, getting up and going, that is very American," said Mirren.

"The Leisure Seeker"
DVD
$19.99
http://sonyclassics.com/theleisureseeker/