film diminished capacity

A man suffering from memory takes a trip to a memorabilia expo with his Alzheimer’s-impaired relative and his high school flame, where the trio plans to finalized their scheme to sell a rare baseball card.
- realtvfilms.com

After a concussion leaves him unfocused, short on short-term memory, and demoted from the political pages to the comics, Cooper (Matthew Broderick), a Chicago newspaper editor, travels home to Missouri to visit his aging Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda). On the verge of losing his home and exhibiting signs of senility, Rollie spends his time stubbornly refusing to pay bills, compulsively drying socks, and sitting by the lake editing “fish poetry” (think typewriter keys tied to baited fishing lines). But when he shows Cooper a near-mint-condition Frank “Wildfire” Schulte baseball card, the two muddled men—along with Cooper’s high school sweetheart, Charlotte ( Virginia Madsen)--drive back to Chicago hoping to sell the antique card at a memorabilia convention.

Director Terry Kinney and screenwriter Sherwood Kiraly (who also wrote the novel) have concocted a delightful, bittersweet comedy about people coming together and memory falling apart. Full of wit and observant character humor, Diminished Capacity is cleverly set in the world of baseball cards and commercialized nostalgia that allows us to explore the value of our memories (which may not be what’s quoted in the price list) and who we are without them.

It’s with a hint of melancholy that we accept that our memories are fleeting, or as Rollie’s fish point out in one of their more-accessible poems, “Time is the guest of the north.” They may be on to something.
- Sundance Film Guide

A man (Broderick) suffering from memory takes a trip to a memorabilia expo with his Alzheimer's-impaired relative (Alda) and his high school flame (Madsen), where the trio plans to finalized their scheme to sell a rare baseball card.
–IMDb.com

Terry Kinney - Alongside Gary Sinise and Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney cofounded Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, where he has directed A Streetcar Named Desire, A Clockwork Orange, and Streamers. On Broadway, he directed One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, which won the Tony Award for best revival. Kinney also directed the short film Kubuku Rides (This Is It). He is an actor and has appeared in several plays, including Balm in Gilead, Orphans, Buried Child, and The Grapes of Wrath, for which he received a Tony nomination. His film appearances include Save the Last Dance, Sleepers, Fly Away Home, and The Last of the Mohicans.

ExP: Scott Hanson, John Allen Ed Hart, Bruce Lunsford

Pr: Celine Rattray, Galt Niederhoffer, Tim Evans, Daniela Tapling Lundberg

Ci: Vanja Cernjul

Ed: Tim Streeto