Sunday, May 24, 2015

Still Alice - Movie Review

Julianne Moore won the Best Actress at the Academy Awards for this role. She plays Dr. Alice Howland, a linguistics Professor who discovers she has familial Alzheimer's disease. At first she forgets one word in a conference first (that one black moment - happens), then gets lost in the campus while on a run. Her neurologist confirms her disease and she has to break the news to her husband and three grown up children. When the doctor gives her a test you can sense everyone in the audience takes the test too - and I wonder how many get it all right. Anyway the doctor tells her that good exercise and plenty of water to keep her memory good (thanks doc!).

The disease grows worse and she forgets things more rapidly. She has a few questions which she keeps on her phone reminder to check her deterioration. She also makes a plan to commit suicide when she gets to a stage where she cannot remember a thing (as a file in her computer). More words are forgotten, she forgets the way to the bathroom once, forgets people she has met before, and on and on until she forgets her own children and has to be reminded who they are. As her condition gets really bad we see her youngest daughter, the only one who does not have a steady career choice and perhaps the one who never got along with her, choose to come and stay with her mother.

Moore does a fine job. It's a movie that wakes you up to the disease. It's based on a book by Lisa Genova - same name. Nice, slow and linear. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Julianne moore did an amazing job.