Review of Away from Her (2007) by Alejandro S — 11 Aug 2008

The performances, both Julie Christie's which recieved a great deal of attenteion, and Gordon Pinsent's, which deserved as much, are fantastic. Both are subtle and both are tremendously pained.

The story and the material are compelling. The storytelling is the film's weakest point. The film seems at time to lose its pacing; toward the end, it feels like there were several proposed endings, and they couldn't decide on one, so they tried to integrate both of them.

The editing at times feels choppy, and at times the direction tries too hard: camera moves that attempt to do too much, and sudden (and unnecessary) use of slow motion -- all of which call attention to themselves as film techniques, instead of keeping the focus on the story.

That said, the film is very effective: sad and very true.