Our 10 Top Movies About Retirement
Category: General Retirement Issues
March 31, 2018 — Coming of age movies like The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, 2001: Space Odyssey, etc. became cultural icons for us baby boomers, back in the day. Producers of these blockbusters found huge audiences among our generation. Hollywood is still making movies for us today. Many aspects of the plots and characters are the same (love and loneliness, finding yourself), everybody is just a lot older! Special thanks to our traveling companion Deb (a tremendous fan of movies) for helping spark this idea.
Here are our top 10 movies (including 1 TV series) for baby boomers that touch on the topic of retirement. We hope that you will add your favorites too. We start our list with more recent movies, then go on to some oldies but goodies. Most are classics, definitely worth watching again.
The Leisure Seeker. (2018) Academy Award winner Helen Mirren and two-time Golden Globe winner Donald Sutherland star as a runaway couple going on an unforgettable journey in the faithful old RV they call The Leisure Seeker. Their destination? Key West, and the Ernest Hemingway House.
The Quartet (2012) Once-popular opera diva Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) creates a stir with her arrival at Beecham House, a home for retired performers. No one feels the uproar more than Reginald (Tom Courtenay), Jean’s ex-husband, who still smarts from her long-ago infidelity.
Cocoon (1985). An all star cast includes top-drawer stars like Jessica Tandy, Don Ameche and Hume Cronyn. Fabulous story of people in a retirement home who discover a fountain of youth – courtesy of aliens who have invaded a swimming pool. Directed by Ron Howard
The Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011). Great cast of retired Englishmen and women seeking a retirement haven at an Indian Hotel that is a little short of what it promised. Love and loss. Judi Dench, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, Maggie Smith. The sequel is The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
In Her Shoes (2005) Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine). Based on the novel by Jennifer Weiner, a lost adult daughter comes to live with her mother in a Florida retirement community. She definitely livens things up for the old guys as she finds herself. Meanwhile her relationships with her mother, sister, and grandmother go in many different directions.
The Bucket List (2007) Old guys out for some last kicks before one of them, terminally ill, checks out. The Bucket List is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Rob Reiner, produced by Reiner, Alan Greisman, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
Under the Tuscan Sun is a 2003 American romantic comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by Audrey Wells and starring Diane Lane. Based on Frances Mayes’ 1996 memoir of the same name, the film is about a recently divorced writer who buys a villa in Tuscany on a whim, hoping it will lead to a change in her life.
Grumpy Old Men (1993). Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau are a pair of widowers who live lonely lives but enjoy some activities together. The character played by a beautiful Ann-Margret revs up jealousy between them. Darryl Hannah and an IRS Agent enrich the plot.
Mr. Belevedere Rings the Bell (1951). An urbane, sharp-tongued expert (Clifton Web) on how to stay young interrupts a lecturing tour to prove his theory at a dilapidated old people’s home. We haven’t seen this one but our movie expert friend Deb said: “I highly recommend Mr Belvedere Rings the Bell. It is much of a mindset on retirement years. I saw it when I was 15 and it made a huge impression on me”.
Grace and Frankie (TV). Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are newly divorced, and their ex-husbands are a new couple. Funny and pithy in LA and Malibu. Netflix. Its fifth season is in production.
Want to find out more about any of these movies? Just type in the name of the movie into your favorite search engine and you get a lot of info plus how to see the movie.
What are your favorite movies that have some kind of retirement theme? Please share your the ones you love in the Comments section below. Do you think they give an accurate picture of what retirement is really like (realizing of course that they are movies).
For further reading:
See our Pinterest Board – “Movies Baby Boomers Would Love”
Comments on "Our 10 Top Movies About Retirement"
Tomi says:
Lost in America. Classic
ella says:
If you've read the book, Under the Tuscan Sun, you will know that the movie is not based on Frances Mayes’ book, although it's supposed to be! In the book, Frances Mayes is married; in the book she's a sex-starved single woman. (And the changes go on and on. All bad!) I watched it for about 10 minutes and decided i either had early dementia or the movie was a horrible rendition of a terrific book!
Jan Cullinane says:
"About Schmidt" with Jack Nicholson (2002)
85% on Rotten Tomatoes. Worth watching.
RichPB says:
Have not read "Under a Tuscan Sun" and the movie did not encourage me I Believe the correct movie title is "Mr. Blevedere Rings the Bell" and, if so, deserves mention. About Schmidt has so much to say it almost does not qualify for the term "retirement":
Tomi says:
About Schmidt. So great
Linda says:
Just recently watched and enjoyed "Silver Skies" that features George Hamilton. A synopsis: "Eccentric retirees' lives are turned upside down when their beloved apartment complex is suddenly sold out from under them."
dick gorman says:
About Schmidt was certainly a classic.
Jan Cullinane says:
Even though it's not a movie, who remembers the "Kick the Can" Twilight Zone episode? (1962)
It's a classic: About the people living in a "retirement home" and one man's attempt to regain his youth. He believes if he acts young, he will become young.
Rich Friedman says:
“I’ll see you in my dreams” starring Sam Elliot and Blythe Danner. Very humorous drama set in a WestCoast retirement community. Sam Elliot is every 70 ish retirees idol and Blythe Danner puts women 1/2 her age to shame!!
Dave says:
"A Walk in the Woods" (2015) with Robert Redford, Nick Nolte and Emma Thompson was an enjoyable 100 minutes to spend with a couple of retired old codgers.
Tomi says:
I remember the Twilight episode. I love that show.