“Elizabeth Is Missing” (2019): Glenda Jackson’s Last Performance

Certainly an interesting ‘companion piece’ to Anthony Hopkins in The Father. Both actors are at the top of their game late in life and their careers.

Elizabeth Is Missing is a ‘different’ murder-mystery novel by Emma Healy that has been adapted by Andrea Gibb and directed by Aisling Walsh.

Maud (Jackson) has Alzheimer’s and becomes concerned when her friend Elizabeth goes missing suddenly. Tied in with this are her confused memories of the disappearance of her older sister decades before–a mystery which she helps to solve before this movie’s ending.

Jackson’s performance is the main reason to view this film; she gives a rich, realistic, nuanced interpretation of an old woman dealing with Alzheimer’s while coping with daily changing facts and illusions.

If you are a Glenda Jackson fan of olde and/or want to see one of the strongest, most convincing portraits of someone dealing with this debilitating condition, then this movie will challenge and stretch your understandings thereof.

The other actors don’t have the depth-role of Jackson, but give reasonable performances as the minor characters. Beyond Jackson’s acting, the last part denouement is both somewhat undramatic and anticlimactic, though the two mysteries get solved.

Recommended mainly for Jackson’s strong performance.

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