Critics reviews

The interactions may sometimes be outlandish but they still feel rooted in the harsh reality of what it means to be in relationships and the ethical choices that are being made about living and dying along the way are punchy and thought provoking.

Dying is an enlightening punch in the gut, as Glasner offers the increasingly rare opportunity of a cinema that immerses us in the depths of the human experience without varnish or sentimentalism.

It is irreverent in a way that makes light of (while shedding light on) the comfortable but unfulfilled lives of the middle- and old-aged; brutally self-reflexive to the extent that it doesn’t shy away from the campier elements that constitute much of our tragic and comic selves.

Anchored by a nuanced, detailed performance by Lars Eidinger... this richly rewards the time investment it requires. Sure, a few trims here and there wouldn’t have necessarily ruined it, and some might suggest this could work better as a multi-part limited series for upscale TV.

Dying never pretends to be social realism, with its heightened color and interleaved chapter headings, but at these moments it feels as if it is subsiding into melodrama. It is pulled back from the brink, however, by the quiet strength of Eidinger’s central performance and the attention paid by the director and the other actors to the details of old age and addiction; every character rings true, even if their situations occasionally do not.

This is a bleak, bold, extravagantly crazy story which is emotionally incorrect at all times. Perhaps it could have been produced as a streaming-TV production but that would have deprived audiences of the pleasures of swallowing it whole, albeit divided into sections introduced by low-tech, Lars Von Trier style chapter headings.

Dying is a flavoursome exercise in high-class soap opera... this pan-generational contemporary drama has a very personal feel, touching on emotionally raw areas with a level of detail that feels autobiographical. Fortunately, themes of regret and guilt and unresolved parental friction will resonate with a fairly wide audience, especially since Glasner packages them with enough self-aware humour to avoid sliding into navel-gazing pomposity.

For a solid two hours, Dying is this sharply observant, casually unsentimental portrait of a dysfunctional family... The last hour of Dying struggles to find the same level of sharpness so the whole thing doesn’t land on a high note. That said, I’m impressed overall by Glasner’s writing and the individual performances from this talented ensemble cast.

If there’s any reflection or revelation to be found, it’s that the connective tissue between various threads involves phone calls that read differently once the film revisits them from another character’s point of view. But beyond this minor trick of perspective, there’s little that’s truly cinematic about “Dying,” a film of remarkable performance and subject matter, laid low by unremarkable filmmaking.