Here, she portrays the judge who sentences a shaggy-haired millennial con man (Tate Dewey) to what she considers innovative incarceration — four weeks house arrest at his grandmother’s Kentucky farm.
The judge didn’t do enough research to know that grandma is also afflicted with Alzheimer’s, though the hired man there (Kevin Hardesty) takes pretty good care of her.
The young man is bummed that there’s nothing to do in the sticks and — worse — spotty cell service. Still, he calls a couple of friends out to help him pull a heist on his failing grandmother, trying to get her to change her will or otherwise gain access to her bank accounts.
He goes so far as dressing up like Jesus to fool her into following through. It’s a pretty mean trick to play on anybody’s grandma, let alone one with Alzheimer’s.
At some point, he seems to realize this too — though there doesn’t seem to be a singular turning point that sets him straight.
Dewey, whose Harry Styles-like coiffure suggests a future in boy bands, never gets too convincing as a bad guy. It’s fun to check in, though, with the elders in the supporting cast that also includes Gossett, 85, effortlessly playing the local preacher, and O’Neal, 58, as a town doctor. She once played an ornery youth as well, back in in 1973’s “Paper Moon,” winning her Oscar at age 10. But it’s kind of crazy to see Chakaris, who once led the Sharks in the original “West Side Story,” back at 89 to portray a banker — 30 years after his last role.
In the end, there isn’t a whole lot we’ve learned about the disease at hand, if that was the intent of Zanoli, who wrote, produced and directed. But we may have learned a few things about casting.
“Not to Forget” is available on demand on Amazon Prime, GooglePlay, Apple TV and DirecTV.