The Leisure Seeker

Ella and John Spencer have been married for decades, and age has caught up with them. Between medical appointments and the demands of their grown children, the couple decides that whatever time remains should be spent together rather than in treatment. They leave Boston in an old camper van and head for Key West, Florida, hoping to visit Ernest Hemingway's house, while the people around them consider the trip a bad idea. The journey takes them through an America they barely recognise, mixing comic encounters along the way with memories of the life they have shared. Helen Mirren plays Ella and Donald Sutherland plays John, with Christian McKay, Janel Moloney, Dana Ivey and Dick Gregory among the supporting cast.

The film was directed by Paolo Virzì, who wrote the screenplay with Francesco Piccolo and Francesca Archibugi. It sits between Like Crazy (2016) and Another Summer Holiday (2024) in a filmography that also includes Human Capital (2013) and The First Beautiful Thing (2010). A co-production between Italy and France, it was released in 2018 and runs 112 minutes.

The Leisure Seeker drew little at the worldwide box office, taking about 3 million USD. Audiences have received it more warmly than critics: it holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 on TMDB from just over five hundred votes, compared with a critics' score of 5.2 out of 10 from 110 reviews.