When her father, aged 92 at the time of filming, decided he wanted to end his life in 2021, Timoner and other members of her family were surprised. Their shock and cautious support are chronicled at the beginning of, which economically walks viewers through Eli’s struggles. A stroke in his early 50s left him paralyzed on the left side of his body.
It was the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 that made an elderly Eli more acutely aware of daily challenges. He was prone to falling because he struggled to walk by himself, and was sent to the hospital for trouble breathing. Right before his family discussed placing him in a nursing home for full-time care, Eli told the director that he wanted to end his life. California is one of a handful of states in the U.S. that have authorized medical aid in dying.
Time structures the film, which finds its footing when Timoner formally begins the 15-day countdown clock. The title cards — 15, 10, 5, 3 — briefly interrupt the narrative and, like a score, tune our feelings. Each day doubles as a lesson in Eli Timoner, the individual. We learn of his early years as an executive of Air Florida, how he lost his fortune and the company after the stroke and how a lack of disability legislation left him unprotected.
But Timoner doesn’t only chronicle Eli’s version or vision of himself. As the family works through the practical nature of death — scheduling goodbye Zoom calls with friends, checking Eli’s bank accounts, assessing his debts, tracking his bills — they also share their stories. Timoner’s siblings, Rachel and David, talk to Eli and to each other about the impact their father had on their lives.
Even knowing that death is coming does not prepare the Timoners or the viewer for the final moments of. The process is methodical — Eli ingests the drug cocktail in three parts — and the mood is anxious and sad. When his final moments do arrive, when the time of death is recorded, a calm settles in. The members of his family hold each other, and Rachel’s words ring anew. “You were not perfect in this life,” she told her father at the end of his confession, “but you were good.