practical living
Black comedy
New Netflix film tackles death and dementia .
By Conor Burke
The premise to Netflix ’ s new film , Dick Johnson is Dead ,
is simple . Documentarian Kirsten Johnson ’ s father , the eponymous Dick , is diagnosed with dementia , so to work through the grief , loss and impending death , she decides to chronicle the last few years of his life all the while staging her father ’ s death over and over again in an elaborate series of violent accidents all punctuated by fantasy scenes in heaven . Okay , it really isn ’ t simple . “ Just the idea that I might ever lose this man is just too much to bear , he ’ s my dad ,” Johnson says in her opening narration . “ But now it ’ s upon us , the beginning of his disappearance , and we ’ re not accepting it .”
Cut to Dick , smiling , walking down the street with not a care in the world and an air-conditioner falling from the heavens smashing down on his head leaving him crumpled and bloody . That ’ s death number one .
In the next scene we ’ re confronted by Dick ’ s pretend funeral , replete with well-wishers and coffin , which he is helped into as the crew then film him playing dead .
The Johnson ’ s seem to be going through the stages of grief on camera , they joke with each other , seemingly in periods of denial . The onlookers , Dick ’ s real friends , deal with the grief differently .
“ It is so weird to see your buddy in a coffin . This is not good for me ,” one friend says as he watches the filmmakers cross Dick ’ s hands in the coffin . Kirsten puts an arm around the man , who is clearly distressed .
“ A resurrection ,” Dick shouts as he is helped out of his coffin , to laughs from the crew . The film is full of dark comedy and gallows humour .
Dick ’ s next death – he falls down the stairs – is when we start to get an insight into why this movie is happening , why working through dementia and death is important to them both . Dick ’ s wife , Kirsten ’ s mother , died in 2007 after a seven-year struggle with Alzheimer ’ s . She died on those same stairs .
Old footage of Kirsten and her mother chatting , as she is in the latter stages of Alzheimer ’ s , nearly unable to walk and struggling with memory , cuts the levity and the scene that follows is the day Dick and Kirsten pack up his house as he prepares to move in with her .
We see the moment Kirsten takes Dick ’ s car away and he mourns the loss of his independence , his old life . The viewer is living every moment they go through and for people who have never had this experience , it can be uncomfortable .
Each shocking death that Kirsten puts her father through , and each sad milestone we see , is salved by a laugh or a touching moment between the two . The film is as much about their close relationship , as it is about death .
Dick is the epitome of good humour . He laughs his way through the film , rarely angry at a request to contort his “ lifeless ” body this way or the other . And Kirsten is patient , doting , but never condescending .
Dick paints a vivid picture of someone with dementia . He lives well , loves his grandkids , and loves chocolate cake – a recurring joke as we learn he nearly died of a heart attack in the 1980s after he ate three slices of chocolate fudge cake the day before .
“ How sweet it is ,” he often says throughout . When asked would he want to die if his condition worsens , he replied “ I love life too much for that ”.
It feels at times that these “ deaths ”, these contrived skits , are distractions from the elephant in the room , a way to put off the real impending death . By looking at them through a lens , Kirsten is able to distance herself from the real death . But as the film moves on , and Dick ’ s condition worsens , they become less frequent and Kirsten becomes more emotionally in touch with the idea of losing her dad .
“ I couldn ’ t stop thinking about what ’ s coming . His moments of forgetfulness are going to spread ,” Kirsten narrates over a scene where Dick scores poorly on a memory test .
“ He ’ ll ask the same questions over and over again . His eyes will get that distant look and his personality will begin to fade away . And he won ’ t be able to follow what I ’ m saying so I won ’ t be able to ask him for any more advice . And the whole time we will just be trying to get by .”
This film asks us to talk about loss and confront it head on , don ’ t ignore it , don ’ t be angry at it , accept it and as we understand more , life will be easier .
It ’ s an unusual topic for a large entertainment platform like Netflix to tackle . Both death and dementia are taboo in modern society , still , and the idea that at least some of Netflix ’ s 182.8 million subscribers worldwide might see the film and have conversations with friends and loved ones , breaking these taboos , could make life a bit simpler for us all . ■
24 agedcareinsite . com . au