29 Jun On Golden Pond. A USA retirement film
One thing that the Academy Award selectors like is a bit of nostalgia. They are particularly keen on films when different family members appear in the same one. This was true of On Golden Pond. It features two generations of the Fonda family, Henry and Jane. It also throws the great Katherine Hepburn in there as well. It seems as if art is imitating life in the film as it proved to be Fonda Snr’s last theatrical performance. Fonda Snr and Hepburn play an ageing couple who continue a tradition. Every year, they go to Golden Pond for a summer holiday. Basking in its scenery and mellow beauty, you can’t help wondering why they didn’t retire there. Much like the Park Homes Gloucestershire way, they offer peace and serenity that city life cannot offer. Why not go to Park Homes Gloucestershire to see what we mean.
Again, the story is a case of art imitating life. Fonda plays the grumpy old man, Norman and Hepburn is his wife, Ethel. Norman is starting to suffer from the early signs of possible onset dementia. He struggles to remember their times at the cabin when looking at photos. When Ethel comments that she can hear the bird call of the loons, Norman says he can’t hear anything. Norman’s relationship with his daughter Chelsea (played by Fonda Jnr) is complicated. She brings her fiancé and his son from a previous relationship, Billy, to see them. The older couple agrees to have the 13-year-old for a while to give the younger couple some time to themselves.
Billy and Norman start at loggerheads at first but soon begin to bond over the lake, books, and the fishing. Norman tells Billy of Walter, a fish that has alluded him for decades. They both attempt to catch the fish, destroying a boat in the process. Norman falls into the lake with a head injury, only to be saved by the young boy’s rescue efforts. Norman recovers, and the Man and teenager set out again, and this time is successful. However, they have a change of heart and release the fish back into the lake.
When Chelsea returns, she finds the two are fast friends and can see a change in her father. Inspired by Billy, she backflips from the boat, something she could never do in her youth and her father cheers. They leave the older couple, and all are happier than before.
On the final day, Norman suffers a mild heart attack but is able to say a final goodbye to the lake and the loons he can now hear.
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