Film Forum

When the filmmaker Simon Chambers receives an email from his elderly gay uncle — “I think I may be dying” — he takes it as a summons.  As it turns out, eccentric Uncle David, a retired actor living alone in a cluttered, mouse-infested London house, is being dramatic, sort of: For the next five years, Chambers both cares for and documents him, through all his performative exuberance (acting out passages of Shakespeare), anarchic charisma (swinging from boisterous humor to short temper), and physical/mental challenges. Their lives become encumbered by inadequate public and private eldercare support systems. Coping with hospital visits, a house fire, and a cancer diagnosis, the younger man (also single and queer) reflects with aching honesty on what may await him in the years to come. Best Directing Award, International Competition, IDFA 2022

Presented with support from the R.G. Rifkind Endowment for Queer Cinema

2022     84 MIN.     UK / IRELAND     FIRST RUN FEATURES

Reviews

“Pulls off a remarkable feat: a story of an elderly man’s farewell that manages to be simultaneously touching, endearing and often riotously funny.”
– Matthew Carey, Deadline

“Death isn’t an ending in this achingly funny-sad film, just an anxiety passed between loved ones.”
– Guy Lodge, Variety

“The Shakespeare-obsessed octogenarian is by turns belligerent and erudite, cantankerous and charming... In its refreshingly frank look at the end of life, MUCH ADO ABOUT DYING becomes a thought-provoking study of what it means to live…a compelling, often humorous and unflinching portrait.”
– Nikki Baughan, Screen International