Michael J. Fox, 32 years with Parkinson’s: the beloved Marty of “Back to the Future” reveals his real drama on film

The actor Michael J Fox He is best recognized for his role in the trilogy of “Back to the Future”, where he played Marty McFly, a young man who lives a series of adventures that test the perseverance of the character to fix his timeline. This human value is not only part of a fiction, but is part of the actor’s philosophy of life. Almost three decades since he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Fox shows his constant struggle through “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” that will be available on Apple TV + from Friday, May 12.

What happens when an incurable optimist is faced with an incurable disease? Under that premise, the film offers a look at the highlights of Michael J. Fox’s television career, including his last appearance before going public with his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1998.

The director, Davis Guggenheim, uses clips from Fox films to dramatize his story, as well as interviews with the actor and his family that show us how he lives his day to day with the disease and how he has worked as an activist to promote research on the disease. Parkinson. In general terms, it is a sample of a life marked by tragedy from the optimistic point of view.

an incurable optimist

The film does not focus on controversies, such as the comment by Rush Limbaugh, who accused Fox of exaggerating his symptoms. He also avoids detailing personal aspects of the actor’s love life, since his autobiography explains this aspect in more detail. Instead, Fox shows the course of his life from a comedic approach without falling into parody.

“There are a lot of movies about people with problems and sometimes those movies fall back on pity… and that’s not Michael, that’s not the way he lives, that’s not the message of his books and that’s definitely not the message of the movie”, says director Davis Guggenheim at a worldwide press conference, where El Comercio was also present.

The contrast between what was and what is sets the pace of the film. In the course of his journey, introspective moments are shown accompanied by iconic scenes, both in accordance with the message that he wants to convey: Michael J. Fox is the man behind movies that are part of popular culture.

The tape starts from a classic structure, the vertical line from poverty to riches. A young Michael still without US citizenship finds himself in his native Canada, where he struggled with his short stature and his inability to get good grades due to issues the film doesn’t address. The following scenes show details of his youth, such as the habit of crashing his father’s cars, the same character who encourages and supports him in his acting career. Being the end of this first stage, Fox’s inevitable trip to Hollywood.

In his search for dreams, the city of Los Angeles welcomes him with open arms but with empty pockets, experiencing hard times in his life. The film also does not address this stage as other films do, poverty is not romanticized, but it does remember it. All this changes when he lands the role of Alex P. Keaton in the comedy “Family Ties” in 1982, where he spent his best moments on the small screen.

During this stage and along with his participation in “Family Ties”, Michael manages to move to the big screen through the movie “Back to the Future”, showing how difficult it was to have two projects in parallel and how important it was in his life. “I can’t deny that ‘Back to the Future’ was a pivotal moment in my career, but I also can’t deny that the success of that movie is not only due to me, but to all the people who were involved in that project. It is something that I did not know how to appreciate at the time and that now I know how to recognize”.

Avoiding all kinds of cliché, the film does not have its climax when Fox discovers that Parkinson’s would be a constant in his life, since it is shown as an irruptive element in the actor’s daily activities, rather, the film has its climax when the actor accepts his illness and publicly acknowledges it. From that moment on, Fox has to rethink the future of his life and, ironically, stop being someone he is not, since a prevailing image at this point in the film is the images of Fox contorting his body in a comical way to mask the pain caused by his illness while acting in “Spin City”, a television series of the 90s.

“I try to find the funny part in any situation. There are moments when tragic, sad things happen that can bring you down, but it is gratifying to find out what is the funny part of those moments.adds Michael J. Fox, who doesn’t think of himself as a hero, but rather credits his wife Tracy, who supported him after his diagnosis, as well as helping him recover when the disease afflicted him greatly. , coming to witness moments in which Fox affirms that his illness feels more real to him than all the success he has achieved.

These are Fox’s conversations with Tracy and his four children, whose positivity, support and admiration combined for the actor’s strength make the documentary feel like a candid opening into the life of the Fox who, by now, no longer feels afraid. by public opinion or by judging himself for an incurable disease.

“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”, manages, beyond being an account of the actor’s life, to create a staging that fulfills its mission, to make the audience laugh through humor that goes beyond the sad or dark moments that are seen on the tape, because the objective of the incurable optimist is another: “I find joy in making people laugh, for me that is powerful and most important”.