The Dream of Finishing One’s To-Do List in “Retirement Plan”

Watch the Irish director John Kelly’s “Retirement Plan” and, if you are in any way creative or ambitious, you’ll kick yourself wondering, Why didn’t I think of that? Because it’s so simple: a list of things a man named Ray hopes to do after he quits working. The animation is just as straightforward as the premise, the figures closer to Martin Handford’s Waldo—of “Where’s Waldo?” fame—than to anything Pixar’s turned out. The character’s eyes are dots, or light reflecting off glasses, and the script is mostly presented in a voice-over by the actor Domhnall Gleeson. The music is as ostensibly uncomplicated as everything else—chords on a piano, a spare, almost mournful song called “Walking Through a House Where a Family Has Lived,” by John Carroll Kirby. And the movie is short—just under seven minutes. Kelly relates the story of Ray’s life by telling us not what he’s accomplished but what he hasn’t: written poetry, meditated, microdosed, hiked.

It makes one ponder one’s own life. I used to think I would retire and enjoy a purposeful final act, but then I bought a second apartment in my Upper East Side co-op, meaning I now have two outrageous maintenance fees to pay, meaning I can never, ever stop working. Like Ray in the movie, I had such big plans. First on my list was mastering German. Now I’ll have to settle with what I already know. This includes the phrase “I am old and have many ghosts,” which, honestly, might be all I’ll need at age ninety-two.

At the start of the movie, Ray looks to be on the young side of old, early to mid-sixties, and plump. Halfway through, he’s spindly, with a few more simple lines drawn on his cheeks. Then he’s stooped over and we think, No, wait! It’s done with such grace, charm, and humor that the end sneaks up on us, just as it will, I suspect, when those who can afford it are making retirement plans of their own.