A miniseries available today on Apple TV+, The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray features Samuel L. Jackson struggling to regain his memory to investigate the murder of his nephew.
What is it regarding ?
Ptolemy Grey, a 91-year-old man with dementia who has been abandoned by his family and friends. Soon, a miracle cure is offered to him. By accepting, he will be able to briefly regain his memories. He will use this precious and fleeting return of lucidity to solve the death of his nephew…
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, a series created by Walter Mosley with Samuel L. Jackson, Dominique Fishback, Damon Gupton, Walton Goggins… On Apple TV+
Living memory
Adapted from his own novel by Walter Mosley, The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray is a mix of genres, between drama and thriller with a touch of science fiction. Ptolemy Grey, played by Samuel L. Jackson, tests an experimental treatment to fight once morest Alzheimer’s disease and regain both his memory and his cognitive functions.
The only problem is that the treatment only works temporarily and will then accelerate the patient’s decline when the effects have worn off. There’s a bit of the Faust mythos in this short-lived bargain. A reference directly assumed when Ptolemy calls his doctor, played by Walton Goggins, “Satan” by noting the conditions of this market which require that Ptolemy then entrust his body to Dr. Rubin.
But the main axis of the plot is around the resolution of a murder, that of Ptolemy’s little nephew, Reggie (Omar Benson Miller), the last member of his family to take care of the old man. Ptolemy’s only goal with this treatment is to solve the case while the police are out.
Apple TV+
A touching portrait
To help him, Ptolemy can count on the support of Robyn, played by Dominique Fishback, while the 17-year-old girl no longer has a home or a family. The chemistry between these two strangers becomes the beating heart of the series as Robyn is the only one – since Reggie’s passing – to treat Ptolemy like a human being and not a nuisance.
We then navigate between the different states of Ptolemy through the precise work of the camera, blurring the contours of the frame and multiplying the close-ups when he is totally disoriented. On the contrary, the colors come to life and the field opens when Ptolemy recovers the memory and his joie de vivre.
It is a portrait in the form of a dreamlike puzzle which is drawn in filigree with the flashbacks which come to enlighten the spectator on the past of Ptolemy. During his hallucinations, when he is at his worst, he relives the highlights of his relationship with his wife Sensia (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams) in the mid-1970s. At other times, we discover his martyred childhood in Mississippi from the time of segregation and lynchings.
Like an often lost Ptolemy, the series plunges the viewer into a certain confusion, by dint of not choosing a direction, a precise and structured story (the investigation, Ptolemy’s past or the human traffic generated by this experimental treatment). Nevertheless, the series benefits from a major asset: Samuel L. Jackson. Completely invested in his role, he delivers perhaps his most touching performance of recent years.