The Thor actor and his father try to stave off the latter’s symptoms by taking a road trip to old haunts. It becomes a moving treatise on the sadness of letting go of a parent
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elebrities are forever taking their parents on televised road trips, and they’re usually cheap, easy commissions. Look how self-deprecating I am, says the famous person as they try to award themselves national treasure status by moving into light-factual programming: the person who knows me best is about to mildly embarrass me on holiday!
Be assured that Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember is a more serious endeavour. It features some intergenerational joshing as the guy from the Thor movies goes on a motorcycle ride with his old fella, but this is a journey filled with a wistful, desperate longing, towards a destination nobody can quite reach. Craig Hemsworth, 71, has early-stage Alzheimer’s. His mental faculties are starting to slip. But his boy is a Hollywood star, with the resources of a TV company behind him. Can he help?
Chris teams up with clinical psychologist Dr Suraj Samtani, who advises on how dementia breaks connections in the brain, and how the patient’s behaviour can slow that process down. Social interactions can forge new neural pathways, but the Hemsworths are particularly interested in what Samtani refers to as “practising retrieving memories from the past”. At home you might sing old songs or watch home movies; this is TV, where grander schemes are possible.
