Fiona and Grant are an Ontario couple who have been married for over 40 years. Now, in the oncoming twilight of their years, they are forced to face the fact that Fiona's "forgetfulness" actually is Alzheimer's Disease. After Fiona wanders away and is found after being lost, they agree she must go into a nursing home. For the first time in the five decades their relationship has spanned, they are forced to undergo a long-time separation since the nursing home has a "no-visitors" policy for the first 30 days of a patient's stay, so they can adjust to their new surroundings. When Grant visits Fiona after the orientation period, he is devastated to find out that not only has she seemingly forgotten him, Fiona has transferred her affections to another man. The other man is Aubrey, a wheelchair bound mute patient at the nursing home. As the distance between husband and wife grows, Grant must draw upon his love for Fiona to perform an act of self-sacrifice in order to ensure her happiness.

Writer-director Sarah Polley had intended her feature film debut to be based on a script she wrote about a 12-year-old actress starring on a television series. She was unable to get the project green lighted, and turned to another, an adaptation of one of her favorite short stories, Alice Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain". The story deals with a couple in their Sixties coping with the wife's Alzheimer's disease.

Grant Anderson:
I'm quite aware of your policies. I'm more than aware of your fucking policies.

[Kristy leads Frank down the hallway, past a devastated Grant]


Frank:
[as a play-by-play announcer] Well, once again, Nurse Kristy is taking me back to the second floor. The area to my right are the elevators, and as we go on down the hall, there's a man with a broken heart, broken in a thousand pieces. Well, we'll go to Madeleine's office, past the lunch room. Hopefully, they're serving right now. The cannelloni was cold yesterday, but let's see what it's doing today. Let's have - I gotta have some Cokes again. That's what I'm gonna do.

Factual errors: When Frank, the former hockey play-by-play man, is announcing the Philadelphia Flyers-Toronto Maple Leafs game that's playing on television, at the finish of the game he gives the name of the Flyers coach as "Phil" Hitchcock; the Flyers coach in 2003 (when this movie is set) is actually named Ken Hitchcock.

Performed by Neil Young
Written by Neil Young
Silver Fiddle Music (ASCAP)
Licensed courtesy of Warner Music Canada
Used by permission
All rights reserved