The Mole Agent

"Life is cruel, after all." Resident Petita

In writer-director Maile Alberdi's sweet Spanish documentary, The Mole Agent, about a nursing home, life is not cruel. While slower minds and bodies come with the territory, the filmmakers catch almost everyone happy enough and involved in their little scenarios, created by their minds or the adults given responsibility for them.

Sergio (Sergio Chamy), a dapper 80-year-old, is hired to infiltrate a home to find out suspected abuse within a three-month period. He is immediately a hit with the ladies: He listens intently ("If you feel like crying, cry"), is always gentlemanly, talks romantically without crossing any of the appropriate lines with peers in the last years of their lives. And he has oodles of compassion.

He finds as he reports back regularly to this employer that a harmony and happiness pervade. In the most egregious malfeasance, a lady steals scarves and hides them. So bad.

I've heard most of those reading my review, and I, will one day need a home for themselves or loved ones. It would behoove us to see this benign inside look at the San Francisco Nursing Home to help us take heart that a true home could await in pleasant surroundings with like-minded seniors.

The Mole Agent, Sergio, is no James Bond but rather the embodiment of a senior most prized by residents as "autonomous." Being on his own and easily navigating the later years is an ideal we all can aspire to. These filmmakers have set the standard and neutralized the common stereotypes and clichés that plague thought about nursing homes.

Most of all, the documentary is good filmmaking that seems authentic and caring. Although some of the shots feel set up, it overall has a breezy attitude that will help others to see the good in a much-reviled profession. On Prime.