Can someone please spoil this for me?

I guessed it correctly before I saw the film, but it was still really great.

Robert has Alzheimer's, or some sort of memory loss. The supermarket he works at? He owns it. Adam Scott's and Elizabeth Banks's characters are his kids. Mary is his wife. He lives in a separate house because his illness makes him think he is a childless bachelor. They live a few houses down because they're trying to keep an eye on him and reconnect according to his reality. Oh, and the reason Mary was in his house was because she sneaks in while he's away and sets his medicine out for him.

The movie is on Netflix for instant play. It's reaaaaalllly good.

I think to understand this movie you have to have some insight into dimentia diseases of the elderly. My father has Lewey Body Syndrome, which is what I believe this character has. He does not know my mother at all, and in fact thinks she is the lady we hired to take care of him and that my mom ran off and left him. This disease causes sometime angry, violent outbursts, like Robert has near the end. It keeps you from recognizing those around you, yet you still remember things from the past like it was yesterday. It is as though people have been removed from events but the events still happened. Mary recognizes this and moves across the street with her daughter in an attempt to help Robert meet her and fall in love with her all over again. If you notice, the photographs are all gone because it is necessary to keep his confusion level down. She sneaks in the house to leave him notes, leave food, keep his medication filled, etc. He does, in fact, meet and fall in love with her and finds new purpose in life. Pay attention to the lights throughout the movie which are red and angry but gradually changing in color and movement. They are gradually fading from angry red to cool blues. In the end, they are completely blue and very soft. I believe this indicates Robert has either died or passed into complete oblivion and his mind is no longer full of turmoil. Mary tried very hard to bring Robert back, but in the end his mind simply couldn't return as it had in the past - hence her comment "you keep leaving me Robert". Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn did magnificent jobs in this movie. I cry my eyes out in the end because that is the stage my father has entered. A wonderful movie!

Thanks for the explanation. I came onto this part way through and thought it was just a regular love story. This makes it much more interesting.
My sympathies to those who are posting that they have family members like this. That is so sad.

I will say this is a beautiful film. I have NEVER seen more beautiful love scenes in any film, ever. They stay in my mind even now!
Martin Landau & Ellen Burstyn acted superbly and had good chemistry. I don't remember Ellen looking more lovely, even in her youth.

But I just didn't *get* this film. I've known 3 people with dementia, 2 were relatives. And while every case is a little different of course, none were like Robert's.
If he was so far along that he forgot his wife completely, he would not be able to function even as well as he did.
And why, exactly, did his family DO all this?? If their intentions were only to make him happy, it seemed like a bizarre way to do it. How did they know his mind would *work* well enough?
Like I said, I've seen dementia & this would never have worked.



"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."