The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Even in its native Romania, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu wouldn’t be anyone’s idea of a date flick. It’s about as uncompromisingly grim and dreary as can be imagined. And committing 1 hour and 45 minutes of one’s life to this movie could be seen as bordering on the masochistic, unless your idea of a good time is hanging out in dingy apartment buildings, ambulances and hospital emergency rooms. But, as is so often the case with films from Eastern Europe, there is an honesty and truth in this film of a kind virtually never found in movies made here at home. Director Cristi Puiu’s film traces the last hours of a 62-year-old man as he is shuttled through the nightmare of modern dying—the hospital admitting procedures, the distracted arrogance of overburdened doctors and the maddening bureaucratic rituals attendant to treatment. I was tempted to abandon this film at several points along the way, figuring it wasn’t doing any favors to my state of mind. But I’m glad I saw it through. The film haunted me for an entire day after I watched it, and it still flickers back as it offers insights into the dying that awaits all of us, and the humanity we are bound to while we’re here.