Age-Old Friends (1989)

Since his wife’s death Cooper (Hume Cronyn) spends his time at the Twin Pines retirement home, where he confines himself to the surroundings of his room with a walking cane. His arthritis makes him susceptible to falls and any innocent bystander who regrets that they volunteered to help the verbally sparring Cooper to his feet in the first place. Cooper calls his falls a “surrender of dignity,” when it’s typically Cooper himself that always has the last laugh, whether it’s against his nurse, his housekeeper or his daughter and her husband. Day to day, Cooper learns through his window, his caretakers or his walks on the ground, that he has to keep his mind sharp to fight against the deterioration into “zombieland” like he slowly notices with his best friend Aylott (Vincent Gardenia). The mind games they play keep them from slipping away from reality.

Favorite scene

In an effort to find his missing friend Aylott, Cooper walks about the ground. When he descends the staircase he runs into a fellow resident and it becomes a contest for the banister, which they both happen to be using.