Not so much a community, as survivors clinging to a common life raft
New York can be a tough place to live for the youthful, let alone for the aging who have had their fill of winter. In the 1970s and '80s, the lure of warm weather, a ready-made community, and low down payments brought droves of seniors from the Empire State to Kings Point, a Florida retirement complex. Most arrived with their spouses, and many have since been widowed. The documentary short, Kings Point, focuses on five of those residents.
The greatest pathos in the interviews is the longing for and lack of community and connectedness. Some of the widows and one widower would like to find love again, but it's apparent that's a long shot. The clusters of acquaintances help each other pass the time and facilitate such activities as card games and dances, but the associations seem to be more of need than friendship and often exhibit the cattiness of junior high cliques.
Three of this year's Oscar-nominated films—Amour, Henry, and Kings Point—focus on aging in ways that avoid horror film genre only due to the genteel and artistic manner in which they are presented. All three could be neatly summed up with words that became my father's favorite mantra until his death at age 96: "This gettin' old stuff ain't fer sissies."
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