Jonathan Romney 

Wrinkles review – ‘unsentimental evocation of old age’

This Spanish animation, with voices from Martin Sheen and Matthew Modine, is intelligent and entertaining, writes Jonathan Romney
  
  


Adapted from a comic strip by Paco Roca, this traditional cel animation from Spain is a surprising thing indeed – an intelligent, entertaining, altogether unsentimental evocation of the experience of old age. With its crisply drawn, unfussy visuals, Wrinkles is about Emilio, an elderly ex-bank manager who reluctantly enters a retirement home and tries to hide the onset of Alzheimer's. Oh yes, all the joyous things are here – dementia, incontinence, callous adult offspring – and yet Wrinkles is a tender, life-affirming piece, mischievous although it never tries to package its theme in a falsely cheery Last of the Summer Wine fashion. The American dubbing is done by Martin Sheen, as sobersided Emilio, and Matthew Modine as his son – but the winning turn is by veteran George Coe, as charismatic and often downright obnoxious old cynic Miguel.

 

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