One Day Less

ONE DAY LESS observes the quotidian yet often hilarious life shared by Ludlow's grandparents in their Acapulco oceanfront apartment. Key to the film's success is how it balances an amused, ironic distance with loving details, thus matching the old pair's attitude and sensibility... By beginning and ending on consecutive New Year's celebrations, the film quickly establishes its concerns about the passage of time and the fleeting nature of the present moment. At ages 84 and 97, respectively, Carmen Cortes Deloya and Emeterio Deloya are all too aware of these realities, yet long past the point of lamenting them too much, even though they're prone to counting the months until the next New Year's visit of the entire Deloya clan... Clearly, Ludlow realized she had better record her amusing and still-alert relatives before more time passes, and, as the title suggests, ONE DAY LESS is a kind of testimony to both the documentarian's sense of urgency and the nature of the day-to-day lives of the elderly. Robert Koehler, VARIETY, March 23, 2010

with: Carmen Cortes Deloya, Emeterio Deloya