Elizabeth Is Missing
A90-minute drama about a woman with Alzheimer’s? Sounds gruelling. But kudos to the BBC for giving this film the primetime slot it deserved. This one-off feature, based on the bestselling debut novel by Emma Healey, is now on iplayer, and I urge everyone to check it out. The ingenious structure of the novel cut between the present day, following eighty-something Maud’s attempt to find her missing friend Elizabeth, and a mystery from Maud’s past involving the disappearance of her sister Sukey. Even more impressively, it managed to capture Maud’s confused mind-set in an expertly sustained first-person narrative. This adaptation depicts the world of Maud (played by the legendary Glenda Jackson) with an extraordinary sense of intimacy. Apart from the brief flashbacks to her childhood, Jackson dominates every scene, as Maud tries to keep some kind of grip on what she’s doing , where she is, who she’s talking to, and what has happened to her missing friend, while those memories keep invading her consciousness. While the parallel mysteries play out, the drama also depicts, with unflinching honesty, the cruel effect of dementia not only on the person who’s living through it, but also on their loved ones. Maud’s daughter Helen, played by the excellent Helen Behan (The Virtues) can’t help but lose her temper when Maud is at her spikiest, and everyone else doubts Maud’s claims about her vanished friend and the dark secrets of her past. In many ways, the film is a tough watch, but bear with it, because it’s also a deeply moving portrait of a wonderfully indefatigable character.