Chronic (2015) Online

While Mexican director Michel Franco's story about a palliative care worker may not be completely developed, his overarching theme proves to be quite illuminating as well as disturbing. His protagonist is the driven David, very well-played by Tim Roth, known for work in wide variety of independent and mainstream features.

Chronic is divided into three segments focusing on the three patients David cares for. The first has little dialogue and focuses on David taking care of an emaciated woman whom we later learn is named Sarah. The camera is fixed at a distance and we see David assiduously attending to Sarah, carrying her around as she is unable to walk and propping her up in the shower, as he bathes her.

Soon afterward David is attending the woman's funeral and is approached by the niece of the woman who seeks information as to her aunt's last days. David declines to speak with her. Franco's theme soon becomes apparent—family members keep their distance from relatives chronically ill, facing their last days. Only the palliative care worker—in this case one who appears to care deeply about his patients—seeks to get involved by engaging with the dying, on a deeper emotional level.

David so identifies with his patients that when queried by strangers at a bar, he refers to Sarah as his wife, an AIDS patient, who has just died. In the next and most compelling segment, David goes as far as going to a bookstore and purchasing books on architecture in order to converse with his next charge, John, a former architect now debilitated by a devastating stroke. Again, it's the extra effort he puts in to take care of his patients that's so impressive (he voluntarily takes over the night shift for the next nurse on duty free of charge).

Unfortunately, John's family doesn't take too kindly to David allowing John to watch pornography on his laptop, and soon he's being accused of sexual harassment and forced to leave John immediately. Again the theme of society's aversion to confronting mortality is reiterated. There is nothing salacious about David's actions—he simply seeks to improve the quality of life for his patients and bring them a measure of humanity and dignity in their dying days.

What causes David to be so self-sacrificing? Franco presents David's backstory in dribs and drabs—contact via the computer and in person between his ex-wife and daughter provides a sketchy picture of a man who was forced to deal with the terminal illness of his son—ultimately deciding to pull the plug much to the chagrin of family members.

There's not much more to what makes David tick but he's the kind of saint that makes people uncomfortable. Franco's portrait of David's devotion to his patients is uplifting and reminds us that we should all be more sympathetic to those facing end of life issues.

In the last segment, David forms a relationship with a woman undergoing chemotherapy and ultimately facing a terminal diagnosis. Again David's engagement of the dying is cathartic, but Franco now shifts gears by injecting another issue into the narrative involving assisted suicide. David's ambivalence about how he handles this situation is brought out and this is how the story basically ends.

There is a coda, however, that some critics found specious (Super Spoilers ahead). David, who jogs in his spare time, is suddenly hit by a car and is killed in the final scene. Franco perhaps is hammering us a bit too hard when the devoted healer ironically meets an untimely end himself.

Chronic is not for everyone. It's slow-moving and its protagonist is not much of a developed character. Nonetheless, the theme of compassion for the dying and society's aversion to such a subject, is a wake-up call for the majority of us who choose not to reckon with the reality of our own mortality.

One warning first.

Don't go to see this movie if you are not in the mood to.

Don't go to see this movie if one of your friends or relatives is suffering of a lethal disease such as cancer, AIDS or what so ever...

Don't go to watch this movie if you are depressed or just to commit suicide.

But, yes, yes, yes it's a wonderful, moving story here showing the daily burden of a male home nurse taking care of terminal cancer phase or severe brain vascular damages patients. Some very hard watching scenes but nothing gratuitous here, on the contrary, so close to reality. Tim Roth is terrific in this feature, in this ambivalent, disturbing but so kind man in the same time. A so gripping character.

I love the film making, with so many still camera shots all the time, in the pure European or non Hollywood films style.

And the story is very like another movie from UK I watched this year: STILL LIFE. With a very similar character and a very same ending. A real must see but not for all audiences.

Character driven masterpiece (Tim Roth as David, being an exceptionally detached, efficient and yet sensitive nurse) composed of different "episodes" cleverly puzzled together. The focus - as the title hints - is on chronic (and terminal) sickness but don't expect anything pointlessly dramatic or tear-jerking. Instead every story line seems an attempt to explore a broader (and ocean deep) set of topics:

What are really worth our typical human bonds and their cultural boundaries?

Do we really acknowledge our frailty before getting to "the point"?

Does our grown-ups busy daily life affect our ability to assess new scenarios?

How dangerous (and rewarding) can be thinking about (and adopting) a deeper perspective?

A very nice episode i.e. shows mercilessly how chronic illness is prone to destroying relationships. No matter how close you were to your beloved ones and how sorrowful they are; you are a different person with different priorities now: either they get it or they become less and less relevant for your existence. Someone who understands you and your needs becomes indeed a better companion than anyone else (ah love... oh family). And this is ofc hard to deal with for the previous "favourites".

Who can say he always gets what the authors meant to express? Or everything? Well, here we have many (but not too many) good examples of film sections where apparently nothing happens. What's the matter then? Within this "emptyness" there's David thinking, feeling and changing. Up to the dumb viewer to decide that this is irrelevant. We think we are better than that and we will use these sections to guess and feel ourselves what is happening.

But it's not all-in on the imagery: we have a solid script as well (best screenplay at Cannes); it's a pleasure noticing how lying is used (and it's annoying reading that a reviewer dislikes David because he is shady). Another review suggests that the film "Still life" (2013) is used as more than an inspiration while unaccredited but that is plainly wrong: "Still life" is Forrest-Gump-surreal and plot-driven while here we are on the opposite side; "Still life" deals with someone believing that dead people deserve care and love, while here David just feels like giving dignity to its fullest to the sick. Well, both films have workaholic main characters but the parallel solidity ends there in our opinion.

A possibly weak point is the color palette which is strangely overexposed and bland (not necessarily in a annoying sense): if this is not meant to be so as an expressive tool (which may well be for reasons I don't get) I'd note a lack of proper post-processing.

Not a happy movie but neither a sad one and most definitely not a "pornographic" one just because you see a penis, excrements and death (didn't people notice we don't see any blood? fortuitous or thought provoking?)... Anyways be ready to switch the brain on for this great work. It's a 9 but I'll go for a 10 given how clueless low-vote reviewers sound.

Writer-director Michel Franco's 'End Of Life porno' doesn't shy away from showing us the human body in all its sweating, vomiting, defecating ugliness during the final gasps of people who have been ravaged by illness.

Tim Roth is quite excellent as the quietly spoken, polite, diligent nurse who abuses with loving, suffocating care

Right from the get go David showers a dying patient with an uncomfortable thoroughness that borders on the obscene.

Not wanting to let his viewers off easily, the camera lingers on this awkward moment, instantly pricking our eyes up about this strange and devoted man's behaviour and motivations.

As a person who suffers from chronic pain, it brought to me a sense of compassion for David as he is clearly dedicated to his patients and that was very touching. I felt that the movie moved brilliantly as it mirrored the lives of people who are sick, struggling and suffering. When you are ill with a sickness for long periods of time, life does move slowly for you. Days are much longer, harder to deal with as the hours tick by while you struggle for relief or an offering of help/compassion. You can also see that behind Davids eyes, he carries much grief and possibly guilt for his son, as you discover through the conversations that he shares throughout the movie. It is almost as if he is trying to redeem himself for his choices in the past, good or bad, that he seeks redemption. As for the ending, I was shocked as to how it played out. At first I thought it was by accident, but then I thought of Davids pain and guilt. I felt as if he could never truly forgive himself, given the prior conversations he had with others, and he felt that he could no longer live with that pain. I have always enjoyed Tim Roth and found his portrayal of David spot on.

This film tells the story of a male nurse who takes care of terminally ill patients in their home. He is hard-working, diligent and competent in performing his duties, however his motives are questioned by the characters and by the viewers.

"Chronic" is slow and uneventful, to echo the theme of sadness and helplessness of the sufferers. In many instances he does what he thinks is best for the patients, sometimes leaning towards the unorthodox and sometimes even outright inappropriate. In addition, I at times dislike him because of the frequent white lies he tells, which brings doubts on whether he lies about other things as well.

Overall, "Chronic" is a slow drama, and it's not for everyone.

What I write could be viewed as a spoiler, so be warned.

Yes, this movie has very little action; in fact, it moves at a snail's pace. And yet, the story is a profoundly moving account of the work nurses do for the terminally ill.

David is a male nurse who feels deeply for those who struggle with end-of-life issues. Out of his own sense of love, he does what he does, not some deep seated confusion. It is how he has learned to deal with last stage perplexities.

How many of us would even venture into that world, for even a week, much less an entire career? Cleaning patients, dealing with their daily needs, and servicing them in whatever capacity they desire is comparable to the Make A Wish foundation.

As more and more baby boomers advance in age, these realities will gain greater exposure and discussion regarding what options a terminally ill sufferer has will widen. This is the point of Tim Roth's marvelous portrayal, that, in the end, compassion must reach beyond the norm, to assist in an effort to end suffering.

This compares greatly to Mother Teresa's focus on the needs of the dying. Her way, which may be a more godly way, is to be a servant and friend to those at death's door, remain with them until the last breath. Maybe sentiment will one day reach farther watching them slowly die.

This is a very difficult film to watch for those who don't have any acquaintance at all with death and what it's like to lose a loved one to a terminal disease - However, it could prove to be cathartic to such a person and a way to really acquaint yourself with ALL that the people who care long term for our loved ones have to go through themselves while just simply "doing their daily job". David is a person who has lost someone incredibly important to him (his child) on his own and therefore is extremely well-acquainted with what a dying person suffers while going through that process. He thinks and truly considers each patient's perspectives and provides as much as he can possibly can to make them continue to still feel human (which is so incredibly humanistic and kind) -- even going to the point of providing what I can only presume was very "light" pornography for viewing by an adult male dying patient, and joking about how absolutely unwilling he would be to provide a hooker for the same man. Whoever?! said that we don't think about things that brought us pleasure in our healthier days when we are daily inching closer to the end of our time here on the planet? To go so far as to investigate as much as he can the same man's former life work just proves to me how much his patients mean to him. There are very few people who provide this type of care for the dying in the same kind of empathetic manner as David is able to do. Most folks just aren't built that way. They may be very good and efficient at their work, but it takes someone truly special to be able to connect in an the exemplary manner the way Tim Roth's character manages to make look easy. This is a perfect place to say to those out there who may have a loved one going through the true mental pain of leaving this earth to be brave and not forget to touch and care for your soon-to-depart loved one. Put lotion on them. Brush their hair. Show all the physical love that you can because they won't be here much longer for you to give it to them and thus make their transition easier for them and for YOU! Fabulous fare - the only film I can think of wherein a nurse is shown giving precisely the same kind of loving care to his terminal patient was with Jason Robards playing the patient in "Magnolia" with Phillip Seymour-Hoffman playing the nurse. That was honestly one of the best movies I've ever seen!

Could I be Franco with you? Writer-Director Michel Franco has probably developed one of the most melancholy films I have ever seen in "Chronic"; and I don't mean in a "bring your hankie" kind of way, I am referring to an environment where there is a colossal field of hopelessness. "Chronic" stars Tim Roth as David, a hospice nurse who cares for dying cancer patients. The film centers around David's interactions with his "near death" patients, but also on a dark secret of his own past. Franco nurses "Chronic" with an immensely slow burn; which at times emphasizes the narrative, but at times it's too much of a torturous viewing. Not to say that there is not authenticity within the film of dying cancer patients, but its just a tough pill to swallow; especially if one of your loved ones has or has had fallen to the same health horror. Franco's screenplay is underplayed here as the actual images have more of a striking impact to the picture. Tim Roth does marvel in an understated but gripping performance as David. "Chronic" is the epitome of a "bad feel" movie, but there is no denying its chronic hard truth about the devastation of cancer. Cancer sucks! *** Average

I went to see this movie because of the Cannes Film Festival best screenplay award that the film had won. It was indeed a good film, with good acting by Tim Roth.

The screenplay is good but it has liberally borrowed ideas, without acknowledging it, from Uberto Pasolini's 2013 film,"Still Life," a winner at theVenice film festival. All the director/screenplay writerhas done is that he transformed a bachelor bureaucrat to a divorced male nurse and passed it off as "original" writing.

And to think this plagiarism leads to a Cannes top award! Shame on the director! It also brings down the prestige of Cannes' awards. Recently another Cannes Jury conferred the Golden Palm to Haneke's "Amour,"which in turn had copied chunks of sequences/ideas from Runnarson's 2011 Icelandic film "Volcano."

Obviously, the Cannes jury had never seen "Still Life." The jury could instead have conferred the best actor award to Tim Roth-who would have deserved it. It underscores the lack of knowledge of current cinema by juries at Cannes in recent years.

For those who have not viewed either, please view "Still Life" first.

Chronic. Tim Roth loses himself in his role - as does the character he plays - a palliative care nurse. The antithesis of the usual Hollywoodisation of terminal illness. Almost unbearable to watch yet, at times, strangely uplifting and beautiful and human. A career best performance by Roth. A film that I think will and indeed should stay with you. 9 out of ten

Given that the subject matter was not easy, I still think Chronic could have been better. The fact that it was about people being terminally ill, and going through the indignities of chemo and dying, did not justify having a style that also felt deathlike. There were several instances in which the camera lingered on Tim Roth as David simply sitting or standing and thinking. The finale of the film, when he was jogging along, seemed absurd: I didn't time it, but the camera was on him as he jogged from one block to the next and cars rode around him for what seemed way too long. In several instances the film bordered on boring, and it shouldn't have. The subject matter in itself was troubling enough without feeling depressed by the way the movie was made.

This film has a European feel to it, taking a slow and methodical approach to unveiling both the story-line as well as the main character, David. At first I, too, was thinking "why are some parts so drawn out and slow" but then it dawned on me that these characteristics perfectly denote the life of the terminally ill, and ironically, David's life as he struggles with past issues.

Don't expect a happy, Hollywood ending - how can that be when dealing with end of life issues? No, this film is gritty and real and as close to reality as one can get. Having filmed movies myself - especially filming difficult, emotional scenes, I stand in awe of the cinematographer's stamina and excellent positioning. Unlike most movies these days, where the camera has to be right on top of each and every scene, in a voyeuristic way, instead what we have is demonstrated decency to give privacy to that which should be private (no spoiler here; you will understand my words when you come to that particular scene).

The portrayal of David, the main character, is spot on the mark. Throughout the film I wanted to jump into the frame and give him a long, loving hug. He stole my heart with his compassion while life showed precious little to him.

Truly one of my all time favorites now. The kind of film that one can pull new meaning from each time they watch it. Deep and significant: my heart is still aching, woke up several times during the night to reflect on the scenes. Wish I could personally thank the writer, the director and cast. Bravo!

Chronic stars Tim Roth and its the story of a nurse that takes care of multiple patients. I really liked this film. The cinematography in this film is one of the best I have ever seen. The way the camera moves and the long and eerie takes throughout the film really gave this film more realism. The color grading is perfect as well. The performances are great and the characters are magnificent. The storytelling in this film is phenomenal. You can tell what will happen (sometimes) and it can be predictable, but its the way its executed that really makes this film special. The direction is top notch and there are a lot of ballsy decisions made in the ending that literally made my jaw drop. There are some problems though. The pacing is really slow and there are a lot of unnecessary scenes. I understand that the director is trying to set up a mood, but it really makes this film really long, even though its only 1 hour and 30 minutes. The structure is also troubling since the first part is a completely different movie than the second and third part. Overall, this is a depressing, bleak, gloomy, great film that really makes you feel weak when the credits roll. 8.5/10