This year’s best actress race seems like one that’s pretty weak in comparison to the intense one for best actor. There have been a lot of great female performances this year that haven’t been championed by a big voting body but voters aren’t noticing all of them. The one staple among all the various awards groups is that Julianne Moore’s performance in Still Alice is a lock for a nomination. It’s for this reason alone I decided to seek out the film, which is written and directed by Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland.
Adapted from Lisa Genova’s book, Still Alice is about a world renowned linguistics professor that’s happily married with three children, but she starts to have memory lapses and decides to see a neurologist. She soon discovers that she has Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, putting her in an incredibly difficult situation, one that will test not only herself, but the rest of her family as she tries to make the most of whatever time she has before her memory goes.
Both depressing and inspiring, frustrating and scary, Still Alice is a film that’ll either instill a bit of fear into anyone that watches it or bring up difficult memories for those who have been impacted by Alzheimer’s disease in the past or present. Most of the film focuses on Alice’s early symptoms, terrifying discovery, and deterioration, but it also tries to hone in on the family response in all three stages as well. Alec Baldwin plays the supportive husband while Kate Bosworth, Kristen Stewart, and Hunter Parris play the children trying to cope with the situation. Not all the relationships are great when the news breaks, but it’s nice to see how a family can come together and put their differences aside while they work through the heartbreaking times.
Regardless of whether or not I liked this film, I think Still Alice is an important film for people to see who have never had Alzheimer’s disease impact their family, any close friends or loved ones. Sure, there have been films where characters have been introduced with this disease, but the big thing for me was watching every stage, watching the evolution of the disease take its toll on the individual and the family around them. It’s a very difficult film to watch because of how it turns an incredibly intelligent individual into, essentially, a walking vegetable. It’s sad, it’s frustrating, and it certainly helps provide some perspective into what the future may hold for some of us.
Julianne Moore, as usual, was excellent. I thought there were a couple of moments where her performance was actually laughable but, on the whole, she was really good. There was one scene that stood out in particular to me, and this is also a credit to the screenwriters as well, but while Alice’s memory is on the go, she gives a speech about Alzheimer’s disease to a group involved in the Alzheimer’s Association (I think), people suffering or that know people who are, and it’s an emotional speech. It’s a moving, tear inducing speech, that’s both insightful and impactful.
I’d like to commend Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland for crafting a film that’s both sensitive and honest. They managed to not shove how devastating the disease is down our throats, instead, they focused on the coping aspect which, in my opinion, is the way to go and the key to the audiences’ hearts. My only concern is that I don’t know if the choice of Kristen Stewart was the best casting decision, her performance felt a bit inconsistent.
Overall, Still Alice isn’t a movie I’d normally watch, but I’m glad I did. It’s an above average film that’s impact will be lasting for those that watch it, but it isn’t a masterpiece or one that’ll stand out except for the performance by Julianne Moore, especially if she wins the Oscar. In the end, it’ll probably be known as one of the best movies about Alzheimer’s, since there aren’t many, and used as an educational tool to show people how the disease functions and how devastating it can be. I likely will never watch the movie again but I would certainly recommend it for one viewing.
Rating: Depressing, touching, and heartfelt, Still Alice is a difficult film to watch but one that everyone should see (7/10)
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