STILL ALICE
DIRECTORS/WRITERS: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
CAST: Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth
CLASSIFICATION: 10-12 PG L
RUNNING TIME: 103 minutes
RATING: 4 stars (out of 5)
Still Alice is such a smart film, but it will also break your heart. When Moore’s Alice explains that she would rather have cancer than Alzheimer’s, she cuts to the chase. At least then people would understand the illness and not turn from her as if she’s no longer there. That is how Alzheimer’s is understood by the outside world, but while you are losing your mind and the foundation of your world starts tumbling down, you’re still aware and can see people scuttling off.
There are very few people around today who haven’t had some kind of contact with what has become a new millennium scourge and yet, how much do we know? We live in a world where the things that scare us the most are the things we hide from.
But here you’re not allowed to look away. Still Alice deals with Alzheimer’s head on, no ducking and no dismissal of a family unravelling as they try to cope. Dr Alice Howland (Moore, pictured) is a respected linguistics professor at Columbia University. When she battles to find words, the things she didn’t ever have to think about, she has to face a devastating diagnosis: early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
And as usual in these circumstances, the people who live the most authentic lives – like Alice’s daughter Lydia (Stewart) who fights her mom to live her acting dream – are the ones who best cope with the reality of what is happening. She is the one who knows that her mom is still Alice, who understands how to talk to her and to keep in her reality as much as she can. She is the one who grabs her mom’s hand and drags her back, keeps asking questions, speaks normally and tries to be in the moment.
Baldwin’s husband/father has a much tougher time of losing his wife. One can almost see him running away as he hurtles towards a new job with no insight about this scary prospect to his wife who is trying to hang on desperately to anything familiar.
Everything about this scenario is heartbreaking and with Moore’s luminous performance it seems as if her heartbreak is held very lightly under the surface. She knows she has to stay sane as her horrifying reality creeps closer at a speed that doesn’t give her any space to adapt.
Why should one watch something this gut-wrenching? Because in some way, we all have to deal with what life throws at us. It changes quickly, which is why that cliche of living in the moment is so valuable. It’s a reminder of our fallibility, of what we might have to cope with.
There are also the family dynamics, how people talk to one another and cope or break apart. And there’s a magnificent cast who are telling a story with such heart. From the astonishing Moore who climbs into the body and mind of the suddenly lost linguistic professor whose life implodes in the blink of an eye to the father (Baldwin) and daughters (Stewart, Bosworth) who try their best to cling to everything they know.
If you liked August: Osage County or Away from Her you will like this.
WIN! WIN! WIN!
To celebrate the nationwide release of Still Alice, Tonight is offering 5 lucky readers the chance to win a copy of the Lisa Genova best-seller that inspired the movie.
To stand a chance of winning, all you need to do is answer this very simple question:
Who plays Alice in the movie Still Alice?
Send your answer, as well as your name and contact details to [email protected]. Please put “Still Alice Competition” in the subject field of your entry. The competition closes on Wednesday, February 18, at midnight. Only the winners will be contacted.