‘Suncoast’ Review: Nico Parker, Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson In Heartfelt Semi-Autobiographical Story Colliding With Real Life Events – Sundance Film Festival
deadline.comLaura Chinn’s feature film writing and directing debut hits close to the heart – her heart especially – in a semi-autobiographical story set in 2005 and inspired by her own growing pains at a dark time in her family’s life as her brother is dying of cancer and moved unknowingly into what turned out to be the same nursing facility, Suncoast, where Terri Schiavo was also a patient.
If you don’t know the name, Terri Schiavo, you probably weren’t seeing the news in 2005 as this was the notorious right to die case that actually started in 1998 in a dispute between Schiavo’s husband and parents over removing the feeding tube of the woman who was in a irreversible vegetative state.
It sparked worldwide protests by many on all sides including religious zealots, non-stop news coverage, government interference and more all playing out in front of this Florida facility where Chinn’s brother, coincidentally, was spending his final months, a place where their mother had hoped he would find peace as the end neared.
So this is the backdrop, but not the center of Chinn’s film which though set during real events in her life is largely invented in terms of details and characters, even if Nico Parker‘s Doris stands in for her in the most emotional, confusing, grief-filled parts of the situation.
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