So far at this year’s Toronto film festival, I have seen three films involving someone with dementia and two featuring someone who has Aids. It’s not just a sign that the lineup could perhaps benefit from some more light relief but also that certain conditions and illnesses still tend to be covered more often than others on screen.
Last year’s festival saw Scottish hit I Swear bring an unprecedented level of awareness to people who live with Tourette’s and while there’s perhaps less of an obvious edge to John Madden’s more politely framed comedy-drama Onwards and Sideways, it too acts as both narrative movie and potential educational tool. Our knowledge of Parkinson’s is usually restricted to the celebrities who have it, from Muhammad Ali to Michael J Fox to, most recently, Carly Simon, but for many of us, it’s still seen in an abstract way, a handful of symptoms we know about, but so many more that we don’t.
Onwards and Sideways is written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, a TV writer best known for The Vicar of Dibley, and who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2011. He knows the disease’s hardships – but he also knows comedy, and this film is an attempt to remain honest about the hell of it while not getting too lost in the dark.
Director Madden, whose post-Shakespeare in Love career has included two fun trips to the Marigold Hotel and two serviceable Jessica Chastain thrillers, knows how to pull the right strings and Onwards and Sideways is a sturdy film of substance over style. It’s made with the BBC and often feels like it would be more at home on the small screen, but it is hard to deny that its grander purpose could do with a larger audience.
As could the deserving lead performances, from Laura Linney and a never-better Rhys Ifans, who play two people who receive their Parkinson’s diagnosis right after the other. Ifans is Tony, a widowed deputy headteacher, and Linney is Emma, an American composer and single mother, and they are both told by a believably brisk and disinterested doctor (Rory Kinnear) that they have “five good years” left before things really go downhill.
Tony’s son lives abroad and his only real support comes from his prim, nagging sister (Monica Dolan, doing the most she can with a duff, one-note character). He decides to keep his diagnosis a secret at work, out of shame but also fear of losing his job. Tony is lonely and in need of someone who knows what he’s going through and, after a few interactions with Emma (the film introduces the passing of each “good” year), the pair grow closer, first as friends and then romantically.
Tony and Emma attend a regular group for those who have Parkinson’s, a so-called “ballet” class that provides both exercise and support. Tony has a believable feeling of revulsion and annoyance when he first meets them, a nice and unexpected detail. Screenwriter Mayhew-Archer plays a sharp-tongued realist in the group, calling the disease “one humiliation after another”, which “takes everything from you”. His character, along with his script, nails an effective sense of realistic optimism. There’s no curing Parkinson’s – one of the most heart-wrenching moments sees Emma’s hand tremor return after she thought a new drug regimen had fixed it – so these characters have to figure out how to live with it, both physically and mentally.
There’s so much here that I, embarrassingly, wasn’t aware of, such as how certain Parkinson’s medications can sometimes lead to hypersexuality or a gambling compulsion; that a form of brain-drilling surgery called DBS can help; that it can lead to extreme nightmares which are harder to wake up from. Mayhew-Archer’s direct, lived experience gives the film a rare authenticity. Ifans and Linney also help to stop it from feeling too much like a pamphlet come to life, with the former particularly impressive and in moments rather heartbreaking.
I wanted a little more spark and wit to some of their dialogue, which often feels a little too plain and safe. While we might not know enough about the disease itself, we certainly know enough about the kind of crowd-manipulating, laugh-until-you-cry British dramedy this is aiming to be; both Mayhew-Archer and Madden could have afforded to break the mould a little more. (An overly sentimental Thomas Newman score doesn’t help there either.)
The film’s messaging and more distinctive personality do come through strongest in a cleverly crafted finale that feels less obviously borrowed from elsewhere. Mayhew-Archer injects the right amount of realistic optimism, in a way that will strike a chord not only for audiences with Parkinson’s but those living with other life-interrupting diseases and disorders. Providing hope without an empty promise is no easy feat, but Mayhew-Archer finds his way there and offers his hand for us to follow.
Onwards and Sideways is premiering at the Toronto film festival and will be released in UK cinemas on 6 November, with US and Australia dates to be announced.
