“Late Bloomers” (2023 production, 2024 release). Cast: Karen Gillan, Margaret Sophie Stein, Michelle Twarowska, Jermaine Fowler, Talia Balsam, Kevin Nealon, Bhavesh Patel, Nick Kocher, Aldous Davidson, Lori Tan Chinn, Johnnie Mae, Lori Ackerman, Annie Pisapia, Eileen Galindo, Lateefah Holder, Winsome Brown, Edward Furs, Keira Jo Lassor. Director: Lisa Steen. Screenplay: Anna Greenfield. Web site. Trailer.

In an age where personal accountability has become increasingly hard to come by, it’s comforting to know that it’s never too late to grow up. Granted, willingly assuming responsibility for our actions and attitudes may not always be easy, pleasant or fun, but it’s something we all must ultimately do, no matter how much we may not want to. Once we do, however, we may discover aspects of ourselves that we never knew about, providing us with a sense of pride, maturity and self-worth that we didn’t think we possessed. And that can open new windows into ourselves, offering us tremendous opportunities for personal growth and development, as seen in the insightful indie comedy-drama, “Late Bloomers.”

Louise Cole (Karen Gillan) really needs to grow up. The aimless, 28-year-old Brooklynite just doesn’t seem capable of getting her act together. She’s apparently had her share of relationship issues and family challenges, with all of them ultimately going south in one way or another. The would-be musician has had trouble launching a career, too, mainly because she doesn’t seem to have taken it seriously enough. In light of the foregoing, it’s indeed about time for her to turn things around – if she can, that is. However, given the direction that events have taken, it may finally be time for fate to take a hand.

After attending a party one night, while in a drunken stupor, Louise falls and breaks her hip. The incident lands her in the hospital, necessitating surgery to repair the injured joint. This is followed by an extensive rehab program, first while admitted and later on an outpatient basis. She’s somewhat out of her element, given that she’s far younger than most of her fellow patients, but she does what she can to make the best of her circumstances. And, while bedridden, she meets someone who will significantly change her life – her hospital roommate, Antonina (Margaret Sophie Stein), an elderly, cantankerous Polish woman who speaks no English.

Louise and Antonina get off to a rough start. They quarrel, despite not speaking a common language, and even engage in some modest physical altercations, like throwing small objects at one another. They’re also assigned to the same physical therapy program, and they even run into one another as outpatients, so there’s no escaping one another, no matter how much they might like to avoid one another.

However, when they run into one another outside the hospital, their relationship begins to change. Upon leaving one of their therapy sessions, they meet each other at a bus stop, where they wait seemingly forever for their ride home. As it turns out, Louise learns that the bus is seriously delayed, so, rather than wait another hour for it to arrive, she decides to catch a cab. But, as she gets in the taxi, she notices that Antonina is by herself at the bus stop, without assistance, and she has no idea how long she’ll have to wait for the bus to come. So, using hand gestures and fruitless attempts at verbal communications, she invites Antonina to join her.

Upon arriving at Antonina’s apparent destination, she still seems unable to make her way home. Louise steps in to assist again, finally arriving where Antonina lives, an apartment she shares with her granddaughter, Sylvia (Michelle Twarowska). Although Sylvia is initially skeptical about this stranger who helped her grandmother get home, she soon comes to appreciate Louise’s help, even going so far as to offer her a job as Antonina’s caretaker. And, given that she could use the money, Louise accepts.

This unlikely duo gets off to a somewhat rocky beginning. Antonina proves to be just as ornery at home as she was in the hospital, often refusing to do what’s asked of her and making Louise’s job difficult (presumably something she did with Sylvia, too, which is why she offered Louise the job). However, as time passes, relations improve. Louise and Antonia even appear to become friends, despite the fact that they still can’t communicate well. And the impact on Louise is undeniable as well.

Caring for Antonina begins to instill a sense of responsibility in Louise. She generally becomes accountable for her actions, both with her client and in relations with others, such as her roommate, Brick (Jermaine Fowler), and her father, Al (Kevin Nealon), both of whom applaud the change. It seems as though Louise may finally be on the verge of growing up.

So what accounts for this shift in attitude? Taking care of Antonina resurrects some old memories for Louise, most of which relate to her relationship with her mother, Dorothy (Talia Balsam), a victim of early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. As seen in flashbacks, Louise served as a caretaker to her mom, too, but didn’t always do as good a job as she thought she should have. Her “failures” in this area only helped to reinforce all of the other disappointments she experienced during that time of her life, setting a pattern that has persisted since then. That experience affected her self-esteem and her assessment of her aptitudes, keeping her from moving forward and making any kind of progress in virtually all areas of her life. As a result, she not only came to believe that she was incapable as an adult, but also as a daughter, leaving her lost and directionless overall.

Being with Antonina helps Louise change this. But can Louise keep up the good work? Or will she backslide into her old ways? What’s more, will this experience help her to set matters to right with her mother, or is that relationship a lost cause (for reasons other than the progression of her illness)? Attaining maturity can truly be difficult, and success may not arrive overnight. But is that any reason to give up trying? One can only hope that this is a realization that Louise will come to understand and appreciate for herself and where others in her life are concerned.

The key to growing up, of course, is the willingness to take on responsibility for oneself, and, sadly, this is becoming a lost practice. Admittedly, it’s easier and less painful to release oneself from personal accountability, chalking up misfortunes and disappointments to someone or something else. However, responsibility begins at home, with each of us, usually based on the choices we make. And those choices stem from what we believe about ourselves and our world. That’s important to recognize in light of the role that our beliefs play in the manifestation of the world around us, a product of the conscious creation process, the philosophy that makes such outcomes possible. It’s unclear how many of us are aware of this line of thinking, but, given the vanishing capacity for accountability that seems to be all around us these days, it would appear to be a regrettably growing trend. And, in Louise’s case, it’s the central element in all of her frustrations, regrets and general dissatisfaction.

One might legitimately ask where this is coming from, and that would be a good question. Indeed, why would someone like Louise willingly (albeit subconsciously) embrace beliefs that repeatedly bring about such dissatisfying results? By all rights, such an approach to life would seem self-defeating and counterproductive. But her reasons ultimately are her own, and, in her mind, there might be valid purposes for unwittingly pursuing such a course.

For example, in flashbacks involving her younger self (Keira Jo Lassor), viewers witness the frustration that Louise experiences with her music. It’s not that she’s all that bad, but she’s new to all this, still learning the ropes (and the chords). Yet there also seems to be a streak of perfectionism running through her outlook, and, if that goal goes unfulfilled, there’s a good chance she’ll feel discouraged. As a youngster, though, she can’t see that this is a product of her learning curve and not some grand universal conspiracy out to get her. Consequently, this lack of understanding results in an erroneous belief in the latter, prompting her to give up and disregard responsibility for what’s transpiring. And thus a pattern is set, one that persists from childhood and on into adulthood, one that’s also continually reinforced with each successive “failure.” In addition, the more these disappointments mount, the more they begin to affect her overall mindset, eventually leading to an attitude of “What’s the point in even trying?” and culminating in a continual search to find blameworthy culprits for these missteps. With such a perspective in place, one might rationalize that there’s nothing to be gained by seeking to become accountable.

This also becomes apparent in flashbacks to a time when Dorothy is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Louise, now grown, is responsible for her mother’s care, and, admittedly, it proves to be quite an undertaking, one that she’s not always up to. So, when things go awry, the results once again drive Louise into denial about being willing to accept responsibility. In this case, though, the impact is so significant that she comes to believe that she may be incapable of becoming accountable for her actions. And that takes this notion to an entirely new level, one that’s hard to escape.

This is not meant to give Louise a pass on this issue. Even she knows on an intuitive level that, at some point, she must address this question if she ever hopes to have an enjoyable life. But what will it take?

Strange as it might sound, in this case, the answer lies with a broken hip. In many regards, up to this point in her life, Louise has routinely sought to run away from the problem. This is apparent with the many issues she has had in her life with career, family relations, romance and so forth. But, if the question is ultimately to be called, at some juncture, Louise is going to have to stop fleeing. And her accident provides the circumstances necessary for this.

Metaphorically speaking, it’s impossible to keep running away from one’s challenges when one is physically immobilized, as she is after surgery and, to a lesser degree, during her stint in rehab. She’s forced to stay put, which naturally leaves her with a lot of time on her hands. That provides her with an opportunity to think, to reassess herself and her life, a common occurrence for many of us when faced with health-related matters. Indeed, since there’s no place to go, one might as well deal with matters at hand: in this case, an introspective look at one’s life, beliefs and choices, especially for what lies ahead, and a lack of accountability is at the core of all this.

Then there’s the appearance of a “catalyst” to help nudge this process along: in this case, Antonina, whose presence prompts Louise to begin employing a new set of beliefs about herself and her existence. When Louise sees the care that Antonina requires, she can’t help but step up and pitch in. She experiences the good that comes from doing so, feelings that accompany acceptance of her own accountability.

Antonina’s inability to speak English also factors into this equation. The language barrier between Antonina and Louise forces the caretaker to make a concerted effort to communicate with her. That takes work – the kind that comes from fulfilling a critical job requirement, assuming responsibility for making sure her patient understands what needs to be done. This helps to bolster Louise’s confidence in her ability to do attend to her duties, to be accountable for her actions. It also calls for Louise to get creative in coming up with ways to effectively express herself, given that she doesn’t speak Polish (although she takes steps to learn the language, another sign of proactively assuming responsibility for herself). And all of this prompts Louise to tap into her intuition to a greater degree, one of the key components in forging our beliefs and the manifestations that arise from them.

In addition, caring for Antonina helps to make up for Louise’s experience in attempting to care for her mom, enabling her to take herself off the hook for whatever failures she feels she may have committed during that time. This change in outlook results from a fundamental change in her beliefs about that experience, enabling her to move forward free of guilt and the self-esteem problems that have been holding her back. The removal of these negative influences thus opens the door to make her willing – and able – to accept the issues of responsibility that she’s been dodging for so long.

In essence, this experience with Antonina provides Louise with an opportunity to learn a valuable life lesson. While many of us may think that accountability is something that comes “naturally” to all of us, it’s nevertheless apparent that it’s something learned, something that springs forth from our manifested experiences and the underlying beliefs that drive them. What’s more, Louise’s odyssey illustrates that there’s no specific timetable for grasping this wisdom. Some of us may embrace it early on in life, while, for others, it might entail the concept of genuinely becoming late bloomers. Louise probably falls into that latter category, but at least she finally gets it. And, as we all well know, when it comes to lessons and understandings as important as this, it truly is better late than never.

As this picture illustrates, it’s heartening to see that it’s possible for those in need of getting their lives in order can still do so, even if later in life and if the process doesn’t always flow as smoothly as envisioned or hoped for. Director Lisa Steen’s debut feature serves up a charming mix of laughs (many of them unexpected in nature) that are well integrated with its share of tender, sensitive moments, all brought to life by the excellent performances of the two leads and a host of colorful supporting players. The film effectively examines the issues that can hinder or prevent the adoption of personal accountability, as well as the simmering frustration that the elderly may feel when they’re essentially treated as being invisible or ignored, significant accomplishments for a picture that’s essentially a comedy. While there are a few points where the narrative meanders a bit, these are more than made up for by everything that the filmmaker, cast and crew get right. Based on what I’ve seen here, I’m anxious to see what this director comes up with next, as this effort represents an auspicious start to what I hope and believe will be a promising filmmaking career. The film is available for streaming online.

Life would probably be a lot easier for all of us if we were hard-wired for our accountability skills from the outset. However, as we have come to see from both this film and our own life experiences, it doesn’t always work out that way. And, the longer its development gets put off, the more difficult it can be to acquire this capacity. That’s unfortunate, given how important it is to surviving everyday life. But, if we find ourselves presented with the circumstances to allow it to mature and blossom, we should avail ourselves of them, considering how much more manageable – and fulfilling – its emergence will make our lives, not to mention the tremendous and lasting impact it can have on our involvement in the lives of others.

Copyright © 2024, by Brent Marchant. All rights reserved.