Within 'Reach'

"Reach for Me" (2008) starred Seymour Cassel, an Oscar-nominated actor who I've seen in a handful of films such as "Dick Tracy" (1990) and "Trees Lounge" (1996), as a cranky, dying old man sharing a hospice room with a not so cranky, also dying younger man. That really is the movie right there. LeVar Burton ("Roots", "Reading Rainbow") directed this movie and also costars as a gay male nurse, who in one scene paints his toenails what appeared to be a dark shade of green. Lacey Chabert ("Mean Girls") starred as the girlfriend of the dying younger man and even gets the chance to sing what I would say is the film's theme song (remember when movies had those?). She sings it quite well, too. Adrienne Barbeau (TV's "Maude") played another patient in the hospice who tickles Cassel's fancy when he starts going for walks around the place instead of staying in bed. Barbeau looked older with gray hair in this film, but that seemed to be something she did only for the film. As far as I know, she hasn't gone gray yet. One scene featuring Barbeau that might have been a turn-on twenty years ago was heartbreaking as she entered the tub room, revealing the top half of her body and also the reason she was at the hospice in the first place. Alfre Woodward ("Scrooged"-I love that one), who is always entertaining, played Cassel's nurse and one of her best lines directed at her cranky patient was 'Alvin, aren't you a little long in the tooth for a booty call?' I enjoyed this movie and although it was supposed to be a bit of tearjerker in some scenes, especially at the end, I didn't tear up like I usually do.