Films centred around degenerative illness are often walking an unenviable tonal tightrope. Push too hard towards inspiration and the characters can become vessels for an uplifting message; lean too heavily into suffering and their lives become defined entirely by their diagnosis. Onwards and Sideways understands that living with Parkinson’s can be frightening, exhausting, frustrating and,…
Onwards and Sideways may begin with a diagnosis, but its beating heart lies in everything that diagnosis cannot define. Oscar-nominated director John Madden’s tender, unexpectedly funny drama stars Rhys Ifans and Laura Linney as Tony and Emma, two strangers diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at the same clinic on the same morning. What initially binds them…
Diagnosed with the same degenerative disease, at the same clinic, on the same day, Tony (Rhys Ifans) and Emma (Laura Linney) may suddenly find themselves bound by Parkinson’s, but Onwards and Sideways is far more interested in everything that makes their experiences entirely their own. For Oscar-nominated director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love, Proof), that…
