Gleason review – candid documentary

The film-making might not be particularly polished, but the subject matter of this documentary is wrenching. Shortly after he retired from professional American football, Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS or motor neurone disease. This brutally candid film is partly an account of his response to the disease – he founded a charitable organisation to help other sufferers – and partly a collection of the messages he composed for the son who was conceived just after the diagnosis. The resulting movie is an unabashed tear-jerker that juggles themes such as religious faith, marital stress and the toilet-based indignities of the disease – the latter an earthy strand of humour as crucial for Gleason and his family as it is for the audience.