Italy, France · 2018
Rated R · 1h 52m
Director Paolo Virzì
Starring Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Christian McKay, Kirsty Mitchell
Genre Drama, Romance
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John and Ella Spencer, an old married couple, take one last road trip from Boston to Hemingway’s home in the Florida Keys, recapturing their love for life and each other. With John suffering from Alzheimer’s and cancer, the couple attempt to make new memories and recover old ones.
RogerEbert.com by Christy Lemire
Just like the titular vehicle, the movie sputters along toward its intended (and entirely predictable) destination. Even having tremendous actors like Sutherland and Mirren in the front seat can’t enliven this vacation.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
A road movie short on comedy and drama should at least offer a keen level of observation, but here insight is scarce and emotional resonance is faint.
Screen International by Fionnuala Halligan
It’s a long, long road cluttered with clichés and stalled in softness, pot-holed by its self-serving use of Alzheimer’s as a narrative convenience.
With a script that signals every progression as obviously as the large-lettered signs used in homes for people with dementia, viewers can guess after 10 minutes exactly how this predictable story is going to end.
The Leisure Seeker is dry-eyed even at its most moving and a celebration of love even as it reaches its end.
This particular film is a collection of cutesy “going in style” clichés — old lady on a motorcycle? Check. Senior-citizen oral sex joke? Check. — compiled into a road movie with shades of "About Schmidt" and "Little Miss Sunshine," and a morbid streak that comes in to cut the quirkiness just a little bit too late.
Slant Magazine by Keith Watson
No matter how likable Sutherland and Mirren are, they're still stuck in little more than an upbeat wish-fulfillment fantasy.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
The canon of Alzheimer’s films doesn’t lack for performances piled up with compassion and fine-grained observation, from Iris all the way to Still Alice. But as their faded Winnebago wends its way to the coast, Ella and John show there’s room for two more.
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
The stars are as imprisoned as their characters’ respective frailties.
Watching it is akin to be being waylaid by an expert raconteur. There is the curious sense that it has told this tale before; that every joke has been honed and rehearsed; every anecdote lovingly polished in advance.
Jean Cocteau's poetic allegory focuses on the experiences of a poet outside of time and reality.
It takes a village.