This year’s Sundance marks the premiere of the feature-length expansion of Liz Sargent’s short Take Me Home, which previously screened at the festival in 2023. The film stars the director’s real-life adopted sister, Anna Sargent, as Anna, a thirtysomething woman with cognitive disabilities living in Florida with her aging parents, who are increasingly struggling not only to care for her, but to care for themselves. When a failed air-conditioning unit leads to the death of one of her parents, Anna’s world is thrown into free fall, as the film turns its attention to a broken medical system—and the people it ultimately fails.
What makes the film’s message so emotionally charged is that we first meet this family before tragedy strikes. Though her parents aren’t wealthy, they’re content, finding joy in small rituals—watching cruise ships leave the Orlando docks, or simply enjoying each other’s company. That slice of life foundation makes the loss feel especially jarring and deepens the impact of what follows, as Anna struggles to adapt to a world reshaped by her disability. While the film acknowledges her vulnerability, it never defines her by it. Liz Sargent emphasizes Anna’s humanity, portraying her not as a burden, but as someone who contributes—helping her parents the best she can.
When Anna’s adopted sister Emily (Ali Ahn), who lives in New York, arrives to help in the aftermath, Liz uses her presence to further explore the film’s complex family dynamics. How the film views caring for someone with special needs is compounded by anxiety and uncertainty, but never filtered through pity. There’s a lived-in nuance here—given Anna’s real life disablity—that avoids melodrama and instead elicits a deep, unforced empathy. The sisters fight, as they do, but they love each other fiercely, and their moments together exemplify the film’s inclusive message, even as it moves toward its final act.
Rather than relying on sympathy for Anna’s perceived helplessness, Take Me Home broadens its focus to include her parents’ physical and mental decline and, most importantly, the relationships that serve as the film’s emotional engine. We come to care about these characters because the film takes the time to get to know them. That said, Anna Sargent lights up the screen with a resilience and boldness that makes it impossible not to root for her. By centering love instead of limitation, Take Me Home is a quietly devastating reminder of those who society leaves behind—and who still manage to keep going anyway.
