The selling point of “The Best You Can” (2025) is that the film stars the real-life married couple Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, who haven’t appeared onscreen together for over twenty years. It’s almost surprising given that both performers are so active in the industry, and seem to pop up in a multitude of roles that vary in size.
The inventions that “The Best You Can” has are sincere, as it is aiming to be the type of slice-of-life independent film that used to be common in the ‘90s, but has become almost entirely absent in today’s cinematic landscape. Unfortunately, “The Best You Can” doesn’t have a story that offers any surprises, and hits so many cliches that there’s simply no way to engage with it.
Sedgwick stars as Cynthia Rand, a successful urologist who has spent decades married to her husband Warren (Judd Hirsch), a former journalist who is publishing a book about his findings during the Watergate scandal. Although their marriage has been strong, Warren has begun to develop dementia, leaving Cynthia to essentially be his caregiver, in addition to all the other responsibilities that are inherent to her profession.
It’s in the midst of this stressful period in her life that she shares a chance encounter with Bacon’s character, Stan Olszewski, a private security guard who is in the midst of preventing a small-time robbery. It just so happens that Stan has been physically reeling from his enlarged prostate, and could use the professional advice of someone with Cynthia’s expertise.
The unexpected meet-cute is clumsily set up, and it doesn’t exactly offer a window into the vastly different experiences that these characters have. The navigating idea seems to be that both Cynthia and Stan are made to be outsiders because of commitments they made when they were younger. Cynthia married an older man and has not adjusted to the social scene of her generation, and Stan chose a fairly insular profession that has only grown lonelier because he’s lost contact with his family.
While it makes sense that these characters would be drawn to one another, there’s not enough time spent in their respective realities to point towards the mundanity of their experiences. It mostly seems to be a series of compiled annoyances, which could have been informative if they didn’t feel so aggravating. As accurate as it may be, spending time with characters suffering from bladder issues, dealing with obnoxious dinner guests, and failing to connect with others during nightlife is just not that fun to watch, especially when the tone is so consistently that of a dramedy.
The laugh-out-loud moments of “The Best You Can” tend to be those involving cringey mistakes made by an older generation that is slightly out of touch, but Bacon and Sedgwick aren’t quite believable as being lacking in self-consciousness. Stan is clearly someone who is aware enough about his position in life to be nervous about reconnecting with his daughter, Sammi (Brittany O’Grady), but doesn’t have the self-respect to take care of his medical issues or try to improve his circumstances.
At the same time, Cynthia is a character who will often act instinctively to fulfill her ambitions, yet also feels content within an uncomfortable family situation in which she feels suffocated. There’s such desperation for Cynthia and Stan to wise up that their gradual self-actualization can be laborious, as both the characters and the film seem to be denying themselves pleasure for the sake of realism.
That realism does produce some strong moments, such as a fairly amusing depiction of how a couple in their 60s would accommodate texting each other flirtatiously. However, everything involving Warren and his diagnosis is miscalculated, as the film isn’t quite able to make any truly dark jokes, deal with the ethical ambiguity, or confront the realities of the situation in a searing way.
Any confrontations are solved simply, and any circumstances that could be questionable find a way of working themselves out without anyone being seriously burned. While “The Best You Can” is clearly intended to be a feel-good crowdpleaser, denying any significant tension results in a dramatically inert progression of scenes that take simple premises and extend far too long. While it’s unclear how much improv was actually involved, “The Best You Can” features dialogue so banal that slightly flowier or more literary prose would make the material pop, even if it was harder to believe coming from the characters.
Even ignoring that the dementia storyline is treated as just another kerfuffle, and not the main premise, the light-hearted sensibilities of “The Best You Can” exist at a fairly moderate pace. Nothing is so uproarious or shocking that it leads the film to a higher gear, and the fairly dull visual design doesn’t help the film’s uneventfulness.
When considering that the film was shot in Brooklyn and starring two prominent New England actors, it’s surprising that “The Best You Can” doesn’t take advantage of its location and the surrounding culture. While perhaps it was easier to film an independent production in remote locations that required little extras or prep work, the film lets air out of its tires when the characters simply speak without showing initiative.
The line between television and film has become blurred as a result of the streaming ecosystem, as what is chosen to be sent to theaters seems to simply depend on the finances of the distributor. “The Best You Can” is certainly made with a television audience in mind, and may have even worked better if it were expanded into a situational sitcom that didn’t have to rush its conclusions to hit the desired running time.
There are only so many ways to say that a film isn’t memorable, but “The Best You Can” doesn’t even create an atmosphere that is enjoyable enough to linger in. What’s most damning is that Sedwick and Bacon are both great actors who clearly have chemistry, but that didn’t translate to a film in which neither of them was able to rise above mediocrity.
