Some Kind of Heaven is quite different from what I expected. Unlike the NY Times article, it ignores the conservative politics held by most residents of The Villages. After some very brief historical background, with no axes to grind, the documentary is a focused character study of a few residents.
One of them is a homeless con man, pretending to be a resident and searching for “a nice looking lady with some money” to take him in. Another is the long-suffering wife of a self-medicating, mentally ill man. Then there is the lonely widow from Boston who is having trouble finding her place among the fun-loving retirees.
The Villages in Florida may be America’s biggest retirement community, but it is not unique. I am very familiar with Sun City West in Arizona, and while watching the documentary I felt much of it could have been produced there. Here’s a conversation between the director and a couple living in The Villages.