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• Agism & Mrs. Cimino

  • m_d
  • 6/25/09

  Mrs. Cimino is 1st seen being carried out of her home by EMTs screaming her head off. She's being taken to a hospital to be evaluated for mental competency. Her adult sons, eager to get at her music store busy and money, have arranged for this. Bette Davis is Mrs. Cimino throughout her various states of dealing with dementia caused by age. Gratefully, Mrs. Cimino has a loving granddaughter, Karen (Alexa Kenin), who cares about her well being. Karen insures that her grandmother is placed in a rehabilitative center rather than a nursing home. The center's goal is to return people to their homes to live independently. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cimino's money grubbing sons have eagerly sold her home and belongings, as if she were dead. Bette Davis is marvelous playing this part. It's just the type that suits her because she is challenged to portray many different Mrs. Cimino's throughout her recovery. I highly recommend this movie. It's especially empowering to people with disabilities.

• Highly Recommended Bette Davis TV Movie

  • Winfield
  • 6/18/09

  Bette Davis is Mrs. Cimino (spoken like ChimINo), a senior who's having problems with dementia and winds up at the mercy of her clueless sons. Thankfully one has a daughter who cares about her grandmother enough to see that she gets into a rehabilitative environment that focuses upon getting seniors back home and independent, instead of institutionalizing them. Mrs. Cimino's life's work was owning a music shop and she plays piano. When a piano is brough back into her life she begins to live again. Marvelously inspiring plot, great script and superb perforomance by Bette Davis in an important film with a potent message to deliver to empower seniors. Miss Davis didn't do junk films when she was older like some of her contemporaries stooped to do. She stuck with films and movies that had important social messages to empower minority - statused citizens.

• It's Mrs. Cimino's Life

  • Zachry
  • 5/31/09

  Screaming bloody murder as EMT's load her on a stretcher into an ambulance, Mrs. Cimino (Bette Davis) doesn't want to leave her home. Rather callous doctors call her senile with dementia & her sons are too self-involved to care about where their mother's sent next. Thankfully, Karen, her college age granddaughter, does & finds a temporary nursing home that's geared towards independent living & recovery. After her sons sell her home & have her declared incompetent to manage her music shop & finances, Esther Cimino struggles to come back. Each phase of her way she had to legally prove her sanity. This is one of the best films Bette Davis did when she was over 70yo, before she became ill. If you want to see her in color, close up, being the Bette Davis triumphant, watch this film. I love her for taking on such real life issues and acting her exact age.

• Going First Class for the Long Haul

  • DrMD
  • 5/29/09

  Bette Davis treasured her acting career. It shows in how she carefully and deliberately selected the scripts she'd take on. At 74yo, no one was holding a gun to Miss Davis' head forcing her to stay in show business. This was her choice, just as becoming Esther Cimino was. Gratefully she wouldn't ever stop acting. Shrewdly, she took to the new medium of television movies. This is one of them and a dilly ta boot. Esther is a former piano teacher who's become senile. As her sons take her lifestyle away from her, confining her in a nursing home, with the help of her granddaughter, she starts reclaiming her life. Again, Bette Davis isn't the least bit afraid to be her age on film or depict the common familial problems associated with becoming elderly. This role is magnificently played and has great social value. Clearly, Davis went 1st class all the way throughout her career.

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