The artist is Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern), a revered abstract expressionist. His wife Claire (Lena Olin), who gave up her painting career to support him, is troubled by his increasingly erratic behavior. He has a major show coming up in New York, but hasn’t been able to finish a painting. His students are stunned by his abusive, inappropriate conduct in class. What soon becomes clear is that Richard is succumbing to Alzheimer’s, which throws their marriage into crisis. For help, Claire turns to her stepdaughter (Juliet Rylance), who bitterly resents her father, staying far away from his Connecticut country home. Director Tom Dolby’s complex and heartbreaking film showcases two actors at the peak of their powers. Dern is having a late career renaissance; this is his best work since Nebraska, and Olin is astonishing as a woman challenged to reassess her life in the face of her husband’s disintegration.

Director Tom Dolby and actor Lena Olin are expected to be in attendance on January 4 and 5.