Movies > Best Alzheimer's Movies
Katinka Hesselink
Great Films With Alzheimer's Patients
Has someone you love and care about been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease? Are you looking for some of the best alzheimers movies to watch to possibly glean some understanding? It is a most difficult condition to cope with but we can find comfort at times just knowing that there are others who have and are facing the same situations. There are films that have been made that address life with the patient. Some will tear at your heart and others will inspire you to give the best and most understanding care that you can to the loved one who is slowly losing their memories and will eventually succumb to the effects of the disease to their body.
Although, in most cases, the movies are fictional the situations are pretty realistic. There are movies that are based on true stories, also. I think one of the things that I take away from these films is that we are not alone in this, there are people who understand the anger and guilt that goes along with feeling so helpless at times.
Away from Her
Julie Christie Stars As An Alzheimer's Patient
Away From Her is a remarkable story that chronicles the onset and the disease as it accelerates in the lives of a husband and wife of 50 years. It is both a story about the disease and a remarkable love story. The film shows the grace of a woman is knows that she is losing her grip with the "now" and also knows that she is not completely gone at moments. A very moving movie.
The Notebook (2004)
Movie Adapted From A Best Selling Novel
Have a fresh box of tissues at your side as you watch this wonderful story.
This movie was adapted from the popular book by Nicholas Sparks and has the same name as the novel. A tear jerker movie of love and the devastation of the man who is losing his wife to dementia and Alzheimers. He sits and reads to her from a journal, reliving their remarkable life together.
The movie has become a phenomenon to such an extent that it's often mentioned in other movies as a movie couples watch together. And either the guy hates it, or he pretends to hate it. A real conversation piece.
Are Dementia and Alzeimer's Disease the same thing?
In a way they are but in a way they are not. Dementia is a symptom of Alzheimer's Disease but dementia can be caused by other things and not have anything to do with the disease.
Dementia is a condition where one loses memory and other cognitive skills like problem solving and sometimes language problems. Dementia used to be referred to as senility. It can be caused for a number of reasons and is an indication that something is wrong with the brain. It can be caused by a thyroid problem, vitamin deficiency or other ailments.
In about 70 to 80 percent of cases of dementia, it is one of the symptoms of Alzheimers and an indication that physicians should further test to see if the patient is in fact experiencing the onset of the disease.
A good analogy would be that dementia would be the equivalent a fever with Alzheimers being the cause.
In most cases it doesn't really matter, because the only thing you really need to know is that it's only going to get worse in the memory department. Fortunately the mood of the patient CAN improve when they no longer realize all they've forgotten.
A Song for Martin
Alzheimer's can Strike Anyone - rich or poor, the disease shows no prejudice
Scandinavian movie with English subtitles.
Two accomplished and middle aged people find each other to be their soul mates. They are happier than they have ever been in their entire lives and then one starts to slip away into their own little world. It's Alzheimer's and as the one regresses the other becomes the caretaker.
Through it all, there is this undeniable and unshakable love for one another.
Iris
Based on a True Story
This movie is based on the true story of Iris Murdoch, a British novelist, and her husband John Bayley. It covers their courtship and long life together. The story goes back and forth between the young couple and the older couple as the erasure of her memory and sharp knowledge of words begins to leave her.
Kate Winslet and Judi Dench both play Murdoch.
Sometimes...the things that they remember will break your heart more than the things that they forget.