MovieChat Forums > Forget Me Not (2016) Discussion > the grandmother (minor spoilers)

the grandmother (minor spoilers)

posted 11 years ago by Pseudo-geordie boy
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just finished watching the film, i liked it except for one thing. Eve's grandmother did not have Alzheimer's, i work with people with Alzheimer's and she clearly had a memory problem but her answers to the questions were very atypical for someone with Alzheimer's. I watched the question asking scene, told myself 'so she doesn't have Alzheimer's i wonder what she has' and then the doctor said with such certainty that she had Alzheimer's; i was a bit confused.

the writers should have done a bit more research, people with Alzheimer's remember their date of birth, and this stays with them until the disease progresses much more than what was displayed on the screen, same for the start of the first world war, distant memories are the last memories to go they rarely know what the year is and rarely know how old they are but they can quickly and without any difficulty at all recite their date of birth.

apart from that a really good film.

[–] joanne-66-992630 10 years ago

Language and memory are such complicated things that your comment had me wondering further about something that struck me while watching the film and you may have more info as you work with people with Alzheimer's.

Does the way the question is asked make a difference to how people can/can't access particular information? You say "people with Alzheimer's remember their date of birth" and that was actually the question that struck me as most odd in its construction - the doctor (and later Eve) says "Do you remember the year of your birth?". Most of us have been asked for our DoB so many times that the answer feels almost like a reflex but it's always phrased as "What's your date of birth?" and the answer is a whole package, if you see what I mean (a number, a month and a year). A "healthy" mind can easily see that the question "Do you remember the year of your birth?" needs (part of) the same answer as "What's your date of birth?" but is the same true of a memory that's impaired in some way?

[–] svenrufus 9 years ago

I'm not surprised by the lack of realism in that scene. Thanks for the info on how that worked btw.

Afraid to say that I found this a rather lacklustre film where all the way through I just had the feeling that thse involved couldn't really be bothered with it all that much. The thing that bothered me about that scene at the time was why the hell was that complete stranger in the room for it. She'd only met him a few hours previously, the gran not at all. If he came with her to the hospital - ok, odd but I can just about buy into that. But to go into an important consltation like that just didn't seem credible for me.