Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics, Killer Films, Backup Media, Big Indie Pictures, BSM Studio
Finally, I have come to the end of my Oscar Series with the film “Still Alice.” This film was adapted from the book of the same name by Lisa Genova, and the story deals with a fifty year old woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. About as poignant and heartbreaking as you would expect, Julianne Moore plays the character with a depth and grace that another actress may have manhandled irrevocably.
Julianne Moore was the easy choice for Best Actress at this year’s awards. An old Hollywood pro, Moore had previously been nominated a whopping four times, one year in two different acting categories. She is a heavyweight, as well as someone who has paid their dues. If she hadn’t of won, everyone would have been shocked, including me. I’m still amazed she didn’t win for “Boogie Nights,” eighteen years prior, a role that has cemented her as an affable, rigorous actress. No disrespect to the other nominees, but this was Moore’s year, regardless of the other great performances that came out in 2014.
The Academy Awards are rife with films that feature issues that previously haven’t been dealt with. Sometimes it’s the painful realities of discrimination via homosexuality, prison, or the foster care system. This year’s token issue film was “Still Alice,” which shows the saddening effect of this debilitating disease on a younger generation, than previously seen. Alice is still in her prime, working as an avid scholar, a loving mother, and an involved social figure. With her diagnosis, she begins to forget the life she had built so successfully. First it’s only losing her place during a lecture, getting lost in areas she once knew, but soon it becomes her entire life. People, events, the present, all swim together in a monotonous stream, until Alice can’t even remember the moments she experienced several seconds before.
This is a tragic film. Alice as the central figure shows an awareness to her disease, which makes it that much more heartbreaking. She knows her ultimate fate, and though she battles against it with phone reminders, calendar updates, and a plan for the end of her own life, she can’t fight it with the same veracity she would wield against past obstacles. Her husband (Baldwin) seems unaffected, yet reliable, a man of science who would rather cure her than empathize with her plight. Her children can only watch in astonishment as their last links to their mother dissolve altogether. The story is well put together, dealing just as much with the familial links between daughter and mother than it does with Alzheimer’s disease. Kristen Stewart gives a somewhat deadpan, if effective, performance as Alice’s daughter, Lydia. They find a bond in her disease, where they might not have connected beforehand.
If we’re talking about who deserves this award, it’s undisputable that Moore does. She arguably gives a performance as two people, one an accomplished, intelligent academic, and another of a disparaging, faultless woman, in the throes of disease. I strongly recommend you let your heart be broken in watching this timeless film.
