Devastating struggle and loss, but she’s ‘Still Alice’

This isn’t exactly the feel good movie of the year, but the very deserving Academy Award winner Julianne Moore delivers an exceptionally moving performance, displaying utmost respect and humanity, as a middle-aged linguistics professor coping with early onset Alzheimer’s. We’ve seen the story before, but not such a bravura performance.

Ron and Leigh Martel Movie Reviewers, The Friday Flyer

Ron and Leigh Martel
Movie Reviewers, The Friday Flyer

Although the topic could be directed to seniors, almost everyone has a family member or friend affected by this menacing disease. Alzheimer’s attacks the mind as well as a person’s very will to live. Moore replaces the expected maudlin weepy disease of the week with an intelligent, courageous portrayal of a woman addressing this foe head on.

Alice Howland (Moore) is happily married with three grown children, but will soon discover an event that will test their relationships to the limit. We’ve all had momentary lapses of memory, but when Alice initially experiences an unusual set of failures, especially in front of her class, she immediately visits a neurologist.

Suspecting a possible brain tumor, she learns a more devastating diagnosis. The audience winces as Moore’s subtle facial inflections and understated body language explain the horror she is experiencing inside, reluctantly grasping reality that her life has changed forever. It is her actions, more than words that win Moore the Academy Award.

Flakey Alec Baldwin is terribly miscast as Alice’s understanding husband John. Also a noted professor, John is committed to make the best of this situation, but is challenged how to do so while keeping his rising career on track. Alice and John have grown children, with Anna (Kate Bosworth), having the perfect husband and family, and Lydia (Kristen Stewart), the more rebellious one, who has chosen life with a theater group.

Alice explains, “I find myself learning the art of losing every day, losing my bearings, objects, sleep, but mostly losing memories,” which she describes as her most precious possessions. “Now all that is being ripped away. As you can imagine . . . this is hell.”

Trying to make sense of it, Alice explains, “Please do not think that I am suffering. I am not suffering. I am struggling. Struggling to be part of things, to stay connected to whom I was once.” Over the course of the story, Alice knows full well she is slipping away from herself and will be losing most of what is important to her and her family.

Yet, her most devastating challenge is to hold on to a sliver of dignity. As the disease progresses, Alice states in a matter-of-fact manner, “I just wish I had cancer.” Think about that one. The stress of the situation drives some family members away, some closer, while others just don’t know what the right thing to do is, if there is such a thing.

The role of Alice was initially offered to Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Diane Lane and Nicole Kidman, but they all turned it down. After four prior Academy nominations, Moore finally turned this one into Oscar gold. Just to add to the challenge, the movie was filmed out of chronological order. So, Moore had to chart the progression of her character’s disease for each scene and change her actions accordingly.

“Still Alice” is 101 minutes and rated PG-13 for mature material, and brief language. As Alice shares, “Who can take us seriously when we are so far from who we once were? Our strange behavior and fumbled sentences change other’s perception of us and our perception of ourselves. We become ridiculous, incapable, comic.” Fortunately, Alice never learns that her friends and family will eventually be whispering behind her back.

This movie is the antithesis of “Theory of Everything,” which also won an Oscar for Eddie Redmayne this year. Alice progressively loses her mental capacities while maintaining physical control. Stephen Hawking (Redmayne) maintained his lofty cognitive skills, but progressively lost all physical capabilities. Both actors offer compelling, profound and poignant performances that we believe and care about. That’s also called entertainment.

Ron’s Rating: B+   Leigh’s Rating: B+




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