'LIVING' AN UNSTINTING LOOK AT THE HARDSHIPS OF AGING.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

THERE AREN'T any tears in ``Assisted Living,'' even though its lead character's eyes are perpetually red. A fictional story that was shot in an actual working nursing home in the filmmaker's home state of Kentucky, Elliot Greenebaum's movie is an unsentimental look at the devastation and moments of grace that come with aging.

The movie's power comes from its very simplicity as well as its dogged refusal to sugarcoat the numbing sameness and the dehumanizing loss of freedom that are inherent in day-to-day life in nursing homes. The assisted-living industry has protested the film, objecting primarily to its fictional, pot-smoking, prank-playing protagonist (thus, the aforementioned red eyes), but the facility we see in the movie is far from Dickensian. What I think bothers people is that Greenebaum simply shows the indignities that come with age - and that can be unsettling.

The movie's main character, an aide/janitor at the home named Todd (skillfully played by Michael Bonsignore), is a mid-20s slacker type who's catching flak for his chronic lateness, disheveled appearance and insolent attitude. But go beneath the stubble, and there's more to the guy - he genuinely seems to care about the home's senior citizens and wants to bring a little life into their lives. It's just that Todd isn't exactly a trained professional and sometimes his methods backfire.

The centerpiece of ``Assisted Living'' is the relationship between Todd and an elderly woman named Mrs. Pearlman (Maggie Riley). In the early throes of Alzheimer's (a condition she recognizes all too clearly), Mrs. Pearlman latches onto Todd, transferring onto him the feelings she has for her absent son, whom she believes will return for her any day. That the son may not even exist produces something in Todd that he probably didn't know he had in him - deep, true empathy.

Greenebaum intersperses scenes with his actors with shots from the nursing home, his camera lingering on the resident's bony fingers and swollen feet, capturing small moments of triumph (putting on a sock, for instance) and heartbreak (a hand searching for an object that isn't there). The result is a blend of fact and fiction that feels like a breath of fresh air in a medium that too often trivializes the hard realities of age.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

ASSISTED LIVING - Three stars

(Not rated: adult themes)

rpt Michael Bonsignore, Maggie Riley.

Director: Elliot Greenebaum.

Running time: 1 hr. 18 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena; Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood.

In a nutshell: Fictional film set in an actual nursing home brings home the hard realities of aging.

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Michael Bonsignore and Maggie Riley bond as nursing-home employee and resident, respectively, in ``Assisted Living.''