Still Alice
Directed by: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland
Written by: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland - Based on the novel "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova
Starring: Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Alec Baldwin, Hunter Parrish
Drama - 99 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 15 Jan 2015
Written by: Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland - Based on the novel "Still Alice" by Lisa Genova
Starring: Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Alec Baldwin, Hunter Parrish
Drama - 99 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 15 Jan 2015
There are some diseases or syndromes you think you could handle and there are some you hope and pray never creep into your imagination. Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease is one of those which falls easily into the latter category. We understand and accept older folks in their 80s and 90s forget things and mentally fade away, but people in their 40s and 50s at the height of their professions? No thanks.
Alice (Julianne Moore, 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingly - Part 1) is a linguistics professor at Ivy League Columbia University. Her orbit is full of words, syntax, grammar, and language. Pardon the irony that she would be the person struck with a disease where you start to forget words and speech patterns and then finally, everything else. Before her diagnosis, Alice appears vibrant, precise, and together. She has three grown children mostly on their way to successful careers and family lives. Her husband, John (Alec Baldwin, 2012's To Rome with Love), is also a professor and researcher and together, their household appears loving and an inviting place to be.
Alice (Julianne Moore, 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingly - Part 1) is a linguistics professor at Ivy League Columbia University. Her orbit is full of words, syntax, grammar, and language. Pardon the irony that she would be the person struck with a disease where you start to forget words and speech patterns and then finally, everything else. Before her diagnosis, Alice appears vibrant, precise, and together. She has three grown children mostly on their way to successful careers and family lives. Her husband, John (Alec Baldwin, 2012's To Rome with Love), is also a professor and researcher and together, their household appears loving and an inviting place to be.
When Alice starts forgetting words and even her whereabouts at times, she assumes brain tumor. A brain tumor is something Alice could understand, cope with, and fight. You cannot fight Alzheimer’s; it wins every single time. Alice has a fierce and determined spirit yet is saddled with a disease she can do nothing about. Her best option is to meticulously plan for her inevitable downfall.
First, Alice learns Early-Onset Alzheimer’s is genetic. Her three children are at risk and react in their own respective ways to the news. The child we get to know best is the youngest, Lydia (Kristen Stewart, 2012's The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2). Unlike her older siblings, Lydia chose not to go to college and follow in their parents’ footsteps. She went out to Los Angeles and is unsuccessfully trying to become an actress. Pre-diagnosis, Lydia’s relationship with her mother consisted of eye rolls at the inevitable conversations about her future. After the revelation, Lydia surprisingly steps up to be mom’s protector and hand-holder. Alice’s husband remains supportive and around, yet it is evident Alice’s disease starts to infringe upon his professional ambitions.
While her family drops in and out to support Alice as she starts losing one faculty after another, the film belongs to Alice alone. She plans. She records easy to find videos and instructions to her future self, including some very serious directions when things get really bad. She scouts old folks centers peppering the staff with questions while they assume she is searching for a place for her own mother rather than for herself. She creates quizzes to chart her mental situation on any give day.
The two screenwriters and directors of Still Alice have a personal connection to the source material. Richard Glatzer suffered through the traumatic effects of ALS while he read the novel and decided to film it, and could barely move his arms and legs during the filming process. Co-writer/director Wash Westmoreland worked with him through Stephen Hawking-like text-to-speech programs. While Alice was losing her cognitive abilities, Richard Glatzer was losing his physical abilities and sympathized with a character undergoing an unstoppable metamorphosis.
Julianne Moore delivers a virtuoso performance as Alice. Her hair and makeup mirror her downward progression. There are the inevitable scenes where Alice lashes out in frustration and tears, which in other hands, would be forced and border on soap operatic. Moore nails them with exact aplomb as both effective yet restrained. Certain ‘Oscar-bait’ moments could easily have led to overacting and tear-jerking manipulation, yet both the filmmakers and actors recognize they shouldn’t overdo it. There is not much else to Still Alice other than Moore’s performance, a very strong yet only reason to see the film. I expect Moore to walk away with a truck full of award hardware for her work here.
Julianne Moore delivers a virtuoso performance as Alice. Her hair and makeup mirror her downward progression. There are the inevitable scenes where Alice lashes out in frustration and tears, which in other hands, would be forced and border on soap operatic. Moore nails them with exact aplomb as both effective yet restrained. Certain ‘Oscar-bait’ moments could easily have led to overacting and tear-jerking manipulation, yet both the filmmakers and actors recognize they shouldn’t overdo it. There is not much else to Still Alice other than Moore’s performance, a very strong yet only reason to see the film. I expect Moore to walk away with a truck full of award hardware for her work here.
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