What a way to start this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival! Waiting in line at the Kabuki, a volunteer comes out to split the line between those looking for Irresistible Impulses and those who came for The Good Life. Doesn’t that just sum up the human condition?
I was there for The Good Life.
B+ This Danish documentary looks at an elderly woman and her middle-aged daughter trying to stay afloat financially. Once wealthy, now poor, they can barely make it. Now 55, the daughter was raised for a life of luxury and has never had to work for a living. She’s not about to start now. Her mother has a small pension, but it’s not enough to cover the two of them.
At least they have scenery. Although ethnically Danish, they live in a beautiful coastal town in Portugal. The daughter grew up there, and speaks five languages. But she’s as unemployable as she is unwanting of employment.
As the film progresses, we learn why she’s that way—the mistakes that her mother and late father (who was also born rich and refused to work) made. But our sympathies are definitely with the mother.
A funny yet heartbreaking look at a dysfunctional relationship.
Worth catching. It’s playing next Thursday and Sunday, May 1, also at the Kabuki.
Bayflicks 
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