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Much Ado About Dying
A documentary by Simon Chambers 84 minutes, color, 2023
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| Synopsis
When the filmmaker Simon Chambers receives a call from his elderly gay uncle – “I think I may be dying!” – he takes it as a summons. As it turns out, eccentric Uncle David, a retired actor living alone in a cluttered, mouse-infested London house, is being dramatic, sort of: For the next five years, Chambers both cares for and documents him, through all his performative exuberance (constantly acting out passages of King Lear) and anarchic charisma, as various people (including a sexy young hustler) possibly take advantage of him.
As their lives become encumbered by hospital visits, a house fire, and Britain's inadequate eldercare system, the younger man (also single and queer) reflects with aching honesty on what may await him in the years to come, in this moving yet hilarious film. Watch the Trailer Reviews "Pulls off a remarkable feat: a story of an elderly man’s farewell that manages to be simultaneously touching, endearing and often riotously funny." - Matthew Carey, Deadline "Joyous clarity…bittersweet empathy…in this achingly funny-sad film." - Guy Lodge, Variety "The Shakespeare-obsessed octogenarian is by turns belligerent and erudite, cantankerous and charming... In its refreshingly frank look at the end of life, MUCH ADO ABOUT DYING becomes a thought-provoking study of what it means to live…a compelling, often humorous and unflinching portrait." - Nikki Baughan, Screen International "Here is a vital film about an extraordinary, infuriating human being...like a character from Harold Pinter but, despite the abundant pressures, kinder and sunnier than that playwright would ever allow." - Donald Clarke, The Irish Times "I can think of few documentaries that are more honest, self-scrutinizing and revelatory about aging, familial love and its limits, and the whole tragicomic process of dying." - Leslie Felperin, The Guardian Links More about this film's theatrical release
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