Youth in Oregon (2017)

I agree with some of the points other reviewers have made, but I wanted to offer an opinion from inside the subject matter of the film. Has a member of your family chosen to die by their own hand because they face the rest of their lives in an ill and endlessly declining body? Or do you currently know someone who is now, or has been, terribly ill and now faces an unknown quantity of time on Earth with a seriously altered body that no longer looks or functions normally? From both of these perspectives, I watched this film, hoping to see something with which I could identify. I ended up feeling a bit ripped off - which really made me think. As others have said, what you think should be the vital points of the topic feel buried under heavy-handed drama that grates on the nerves rather than lending a sense of "the real stuff people have to deal with when they're alive." And yes, it feels like a screwball comedy that had all of the humor erased from the script. An artistic choice? I don't know. Yes, people get angry when faced with the possibility or the reality of a loved-one's suicide. Anger, resentment, guilt, it is all there. But there is no "voice of reason" in this film, and I suspect that's what most viewers feel cheated of. We want a magical ending, a sense of completion, catharsis, or at least a sense of dramatic satisfaction (the ending may not be the one we hoped for, but it felt 'right'). What was Roy thinking, sitting in the room with his friend Pete? To me, in retrospect, that was the climax of the film - the point where a decision was made and now everyone in the story has to figure out how to deal with it (and with all the things they've said to each other throughout the film). This movie may not be what we wanted, but it is what it is and we have to choose how to deal with it and with its subject matter (which isn't what we were hoping for, let's face it). People make choices. There are cumulative consequences for every one of those choices, and there is no "easy" out. Death is never an "easy" out. That stings, both in art and in life.

Joel David Moore's "Youth in Oregon" is no masterpiece but is still worth seeing. To my knowledge, it's the only movie that focuses on Oregon's Death with Dignity Act allowing physician-assisted suicide. In this case, Frank Langella plays an elderly man who asks his family to drive him to the Beaver State so that he can take advantage of the law. Not surprisingly, tense familial issues arise.I'd say that the movie is interesting more than anything. The elderly man and his wife travel across the country driven by their son-in-law, while the daughter stays home to keep an eye on the rebellious granddaughter. Each of the characters has something to say, but I particularly liked the old man's talks about his adventures from his younger days.Anyway, it's worth seeing. Not a great movie, but an OK one.

Some old guy wants to die and for some stupid reason he has to drive across country instead of flying and so his chauffeur is his son-in-law who doesn't like him. Is that about right? Add teenage daughter's jug pics, an absent son, a mother-in-law who is a professional wise-ass, and a shared room at motel and you have all of the ingredients for a lousy excuse for a drama-comedy—except there is nothing approaching humor. The problem is that humor needs to be mildly original or you are just listening to bad, old jokes. We've heard this one before.Every conversation was just people screaming at each other over completely petty matters. It gets so bad so quickly that I wanted to beat him to the assisted suicide except it's not legal here. My next option is to beat them all to death starting with grandpa. Because why would I want to spend a movie with such disagreeable people?Since the old sourpuss—and slightly abusive—curmudgeon and his punk son-in-law can't have an intelligent conversation we stop off to pick up his estranged gay son except their relationship is even more toxic than the others. There's more, folks, and it's all people screaming hateful things at each. No amount of the great American landscape could ever be enough to salvage this car wreck. If there was even one brief moment of intelligence and lucidity in this I missed it.There is a Swedish novel that is a bestseller these days called A Man Called Ove. It's about a miserable old jerfkoff, sort of like grandpa in this bomb. What saved the novel for me was the thick vein of sweetness which ran through the book, especially in the second part. This sweetness made me realize that this was what I hated so much about the TV series All in the Family when I was a kid. It was all people being horrible to each other with no soft spot. This movie could have used a heavy dose, either that or a real comedy writer to make all of the yelling and screaming funny.

So its a very good film that I saw at in New York at Tribeca. Great cast and direction but really its the story that is the star. Not implausible that the old guy is tired and wants to go to Oregon and end it. The concept of ending your own life when you want rather than having something bad happen to you from cancer heart attack etc ad nauseum is becoming in the zeitgeist. Its catching a wave as a discussion point versus the old dogma from the Catholic Church and other religions that its a big no no. So how people in a family deal with the concept of a loved one deciding to end his life is real. Was also in Me Before You but this one is way less Hollywood and much more real. Its just beginning of these type of stories in some for or another. So kudos to the writer director and the cast for bring the story to the screen