For the first time in twenty years, married couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have reunited on screen for the character driven dramedy The Best You Can. Directed by Michael J. Weithorn (best known as co-creator of televisions King of Queens), Sedgwick plays Cynthia Rand a fifty-something urologist who must take care of her eighty-something husband Walter (Judd Hirsch) who is disappearing in a haze of Alzheimer’s.
Meanwhile, a break in at Cynthia and Walter’s Brooklyn home brings private security patrol officer Stan Olszewski (Bacon) into their lives. As it happens, Stan has been diagnosed with an enlarged prostate, meaning he must urinate quickly and often. It’s kismet: Cynthia has a urology practice and can help him out. This meeting quickly develops into an unlikely friendship. The two begin texting each other. Cynthia unloads about caring for her husband, while he counters with the difficult relationship he has with his daughter Sammi (Brittany O’Grady), an aspiring singer-songwriter.
As Cynthia and Stan deal with life’s ups and downs, the chemistry between Sedgwick and Bacon is palpable. The two actors expertly handle the films uneven tone.: serious one moment, funny the next. The script takes little care to flesh out backstories, leaving various supporting coming and going, adding little. Cynthia hires Pramila (Meera Rohit Kumbhani) to care for Walter. She asks Pramila to act as a research assistant helping Walter write a book. That storyline is tossed aside almost as soon as it is introduced. The relationship between Stan and his daughter offers a few emotional moments as Stan discovers some ways to reconnect with her. Nonetheless, it’s never clear what resulted in their estrangement.
Whatever its problems, The Best You Can is perfectly watchable because of the chemistry between Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon and the heartbreaking turn by Judd Hirsch. He effectively captures the pain of memory loss.
Also, look for a cameo by Ray Romano.