Aurora Borealis (2005)

Why the hell haven’t I ever heard of this movie? It’s a really good drama, it has some big names, it was made fairly recently, and was largely shot on location in Minneapolis. The film only had a very limited release and according to IMDB has only grossed $60,000 in the two years since its original opening date. Why the powers that be at the studio didn’t give this thing a wide release boggles my mind.

I though for sure that because this was the first drama on my list that I would be bored out of my mind and get to finally complain about a movie. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I am sure that I will eventually run into some really horrible movies but this sure wasn’t going to be the first one.

The well-crafted story follows Duncan Shorter, Joshua Jackson, a young man that is trying to regain control of his life and reconnect with his aging grandparents. His grandfather, played with absolute perfection by Donald Sutherland, suffers from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and is also extremely suicidal because he hates what he is turning into. He is always trying to get his grandson to help with killing himself and there is one scene in particular that gets pretty intense. Duncan ends up falling in love with his Grandfather’s home health nurse, played by Juliette Lewis.

Having just seen an incredible performance by Juliette Lewis in Kalifornia, watching her in Aurora Borealis was kind of a let down. Not to say that she is bad in this movie she just turns in a standard performance, not really shining like she did in her earlier role. Some of that blame can be placed on the material she had to work with. Her character wasn’t all that interesting and her story arch fades into the background.

Where the film really succeeds is at illustrating the heart wrenching realization that the person you have been married to for over 50 years is falling apart before your eyes. This is mostly thanks to the great performance from Louise Fletcher as the wife of Donald Sutherland’s character.

Another great thing about this movie is seeing all of the Minneapolis locations and hearing some great local music on the soundtrack. Although I think they talk about the Vikings a little bit too much, and I probably could have done without the requisite shot of the Mall of America.

I am going to stick with Donald Sutherland and follow him to 1993’s Six Degrees of Separation that also stars a young Will Smith a couple years before his action packed breakthrough Bad Boys.