When someone compliments me or thanks me for a favor, I try to be understated in my response.  Anything I do for another is only possible because God placed me here and now and has blessed me with the skills to complete said task.  As such, when I see a title like The Best You Can (2025), it automatically speaks to me.  Indeed, it is similar to what I say in such situations: “I did the best I can.” That is all anyone can do.  With this in mind, I narrowed my search for today’s movie, keeping it in the back of my mind as I continued to scroll.  The clip that comes with the thumbnail shows that it is more so about dealing with aging.  That is fine, too, as there is nothing to be done to stop that process.  Everyone deals with it at different times and in various ways.  That is a good message, too, and I am looking forward to showing it to you with what follows.

What Dr. Cynthia Rand (Kyra Sedgwick) is looking forward to at the beginning of The Best You Can is the return of her husband, the aged former politician Warren Rand (Judd Hirsch).  There is a not insignificant age gap between them, but she is telling the people with whom they are out to dinner how highly she thinks of him.  Still, she has to get up and guide him back to their table after he confuses another party for his own.  That should be a clue as to his mental state.  Another is him forgetting to set their house alarm that night before they get into bed.  Before she can fall asleep, she hears a thud downstairs and calls the neighborhood private security service for assistance.  The person who responds is Stan Olszewski (Kevin Bacon).  We have already spent some time with him in some intimate ways.  I am dancing around the subject.  He is of the age when regular prostate exams are essential, and that is how we are introduced to him.  The doctor he first sees recommends consulting a urologist.  The person who happens to be such a specialist is Dr. Rand.  Their introduction is rough.  He climbs in through the same window in which the escaping intruder had entered and receives a whack on the head for his efforts.  Once apologies are made and checks completed, he asks to use her bathroom.  She notes his issues with peeing and offers to help.  After a few days, during which she tries to get extra care for Warren and he argues with his aspiring musician of a daughter, Sammi Olszewski (Brittany O’Grady), Stan is in Dr. Rand’s office.  She notices that they share the same birthday, but gets back to professionalism by saying that it is too early to tell if anything is wrong, like the potential for cancer.  In the meantime, he reminds her that if there are any issues in the neighborhood she wants him to check on, to give him a ring.  That night, she notices a beat-up car parked in front of her house and asks that he come look at it.  It is apparently innocuous, belonging to an uber driver, but they begin a series of texts as they go about their daily lives.  They keep making up with excuses for communicating with one another, and they become increasingly intimate.  At one point, she accidentally sends him a message intended for a colleague about how hot she thinks he is.  More to the work side of their relationship, he insists that she get a doorbell camera, which he installs.  Warren notices the addition and offers to take Stan out for a steak dinner as a reward.  Instead of showing up alone as Dr. Rand expects, Stan brings an occasional fling, CJ Moretti (Olivia Luccardi).  CJ’s presence annoys Dr. Rand, and Dr. Rand fights with Stan about it while waiting for the restrooms.  Though they apologize the next day, it is evident that there is something more going on with their relationship.  Speaking of being annoyed, Dr. Rand is not thrilled with Rosemary Rand (Heather Burns), her stepdaughter.  Rosemary and her family come for Thanksgiving, and she has pre-emptively decided that Warren would be best in an assisted living facility in Cleveland, Ohio, where they plan to move.  Further, Rosemary has already scheduled a visit for Dr. Rand to visit the facility.  I guess Dr. Rand feels beholden to check the place out because she takes a flight to Cleveland.  In the morning, she is about to take an Uber when she spots Stan waiting outside to drive her.  Sensing a need for her to unwind after a stressful day, he convinces her to join him in crashing a wedding reception at the hotel.  On the way back to their rooms, they begin kissing in the elevator and end up sleeping together.  In the morning, as he is contemplating what they have done, she gets a call from Pramila Mahesh (Meera Rohit Kumbhani), Warren’s in-home caretaker.  Warren has had a stroke and needs to be taken to the emergency room.  Not long thereafter, Stan has a consultation with Dr. Rand in her office where she tells him that he should begin working with another specialist.  He feels used and is not shy about telling her so.  It takes an emotional toll on her, too, which is not helped when she gets home, enters the bedroom, and Warren tells her that he loves her.  What breaks the silence between Dr. Rand and Stan is Warren’s passing due to complications for the stroke.  Stan attends the funeral and wake, staying after everyone else leaves.  The film closes with the two of them laying on the floor, him relating a story about camping with Sammi that is supposed to demonstrate how everything is going to be okay.

There is a lot of wisdom in the notion that everything is going to be okay as The Best You Can’s ending reminds us.  Despite all the Faith in my heart, I can often be distracted by events around me and forget that it is God that is in control.  We do a lot of things to try and exert what little control we have over events, more often to our emotional and spiritual detriment.  Mostly, we do this out of fear, which is, by definition, un-Godly because there is no fear in God.  We see this played out in Dr. Rand and Stan, though in different ways and without reference to religion.  Indeed, especially with him, any thought of living a Christian life is far from this film, and that is, sadly, not unusual.  With Stan, it has to do with his relationship with Sammi.  She is nervous about a potential music career, and gets defensive when Stan continues to push for her to accept gigs.  He does this because he does not want her to end up like him, having never pursued any of his dreams and working as a lowly security guard as a result.  Yet, this is where God has put him and it is up to us to make the best of it.  Indeed, the argument can be made that without this happening, he would not have met Dr. Rand.  Her issue is apparent: Warren.  She wants him to get better because it will validate her decision to marry someone many years her senior.  Obviously, this, too, is beyond her control.  It is in Dr. Rand and Stan realizing this truth that they find common ground.  To this point, there is an old cartoon that he talks about called Tooter Turtle (1960-1961).  In it, a character named Mr. Wizard sends the eponymous turtle on all sorts of adventures.  When Tooter gets in trouble, he yells for Mr. Wizard to save him.  This is something Dr. Rand and Stan want at different points, which is another way of saying they want control.  What they come to understand is similar to what Christianity teaches: that God gives us everything we need to do what the title suggests.

With such a description, it is difficult to pass up a title like The Best You Can.  While there are some good messages in it, I could have done without a lot of the delivery, particularly the drug use and sex.  There is nothing explicit in it, but it is enough to recommend caution on this one.