Robin's Wish

When Robin Williams took his life in August 2014, aged 63, floral tributes multiplied outside the gates of his Marin County home, one reading: "The funniest man that ever lived." While tabloids carried out their usual lurid speculation, Williams's widow Susan Schneider belatedly discovered that his actions were motivated by Lewy body disease, a cruel form of dementia. In this intimate documentary, Schneider speaks about the condition and bravely relives her husband's final act, while director Tylor Norwood interviews his friends, neighbours and collaborators. Shawn Levy, who directed Williams in the Night at the Museum trilogy, reveals how tough the third film was for Williams, a live-wire performer who had become inexplicably ravaged with doubt. More than a cut-and-paste showbiz tribute, the film poignantly reveals that Robin's overriding wish was, according to a signed copy of the Twelve Steps, "to help people be less afraid."