Review of Still Alice (2014) by Grant S — 01 Feb 2016

An ordeal...but for what reward?

Alice Howland is happily married with three adult children and is a pre-eminent academic at a New York University. After some memory lapses she sees a doctor who, after tests, discovers that she has early onset Alzheimer's disease. We then see her deterioration and how she and her family cope with the disease.

A fairly harrowing experience - confronting, emotional, terrifying and depressing. However, while it is a sensitive, well-made movie, you wonder what is the point? Why watch it?

You know how it is going to go. It is pretty inevitable - there is not going to be a happy ending. (More or less - there is a chance of a alternate ending, but it is too simple and some would not regard it as "happy").

It is not that profound either.

So the idea is really to share in her ordeal. This makes for emotional watching, but is simultaneously very depressing, and terrifying. As a middle-aged person, I don't want to be reminded what might might lie in my future (and potentially sooner than I imagine)...

The one positive is the performance of Julianne Moore as Alice. She puts in a great effort in a complex, sensitive, foreign role. It is the kind of role they give Oscars too, and, no surprise, she got the Best Actress Oscar in 2015.

Good supporting cast which includes Alec Baldwin and Kate Bosworth. The surprise casting is Kristen Stewart as one of Alice's daughters. One would think that a complex, emotional, character-driven drama like this would be well out of her league...and one would be right in thinking that. However, she manages to be okayish and, for once, not ruin the movie. In an historic event, she even, on one occasion, manages a non-blank expression...

Overall: okay, but only just. Watch it if you like emotional journeys. Avoid it if don't want to be reminded about how much suffering there is in the world and what might lie in store for your own life.