The Leisure Seeker(2017)

Submitted by Spectre

John Spencer (Donald Sutherland) is a retired English teacher married for over 50 years to his wife Ella (Helen Mirren). Despite a great love that has given them two children, Will (Christian Mckay) and Jane (Janel Moloney), age has caught them in the worst way. John has been slowly losing his mind to dementia, while Ella is terminally ill with cancer and has decided to refuse further treatment.

Surprising their children, the two have decided to take a final road trip, in the family RV, The Leisure Seeker. The plan is to finally take a trip to the house of Ernest Hemingway, a dream of John’s. Throughout the trip, Ella must deal with John’s memory lapses and her increasing sickness. During one of his lapses, John confuses his wife for his next-door neighbor Lillian, inadvertently confessing to an affair he was having while Ella was pregnant. Ella is enraged and tries to abandon him in a nursing home, only to reconcile and forgive him.

They finally get to the Hemingway house and initially have a good time, only for Ella to collapse, with John not knowing for a while. John finally finds her in the hospital, and breaks her out to go back to the RV. After writing a note to her children, Ella turns on the RV and opens a gap that had been spraying in exhaust, lying down next to her husband, dying in a murder suicide (though John himself had spoken often of wanting to kill himself before he fully lost his mind) via carbon monoxide poisoning.

At their funeral, Jane reads the letter, with Ella saying she is sorry to put them through this pain, but in the end, they will feel relief. Ella didn’t have much time; neither did John and she couldn’t bear to leave him alone. Will and Jane leave the funeral, sad, but with some small comfort knowing their parents died together, in love, and at peace.