What If No One Is There to Care? Dementia’s Narrative Demands

Abstract

FQ columnist Rebecca Wanzo considers the recent evolution of the dementia film, which has shifted over the past twenty years from a focus on the experience of caregivers to that of the person suffering from cognitive decline. Yet the relationship between the caretaker and the sufferer remains central to the genre, prompting Wanzo to ask the question: What kind of story is told about cognitive decline in old age when no one is there to care? The recent Apple TV+ limited series The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (Walter Mosley, 2022) anticipates this question but offers a “fairy tale” answer that elides the fact that the contemporary dementia crisis is also a care crisis.