STILL ALICE: BE AWARE

For a long time movie of the week features on TV dealt with every known disease possible, so much so that some called them disease of the week films instead of movie of the week. Most of them featured fairly uninteresting story telling with decent performances but none ever brought the depth of feeling to the chosen illness. Those times passed and on occasion movies focusing on very real diseases are released. Some are great films that tackle their topic head on with amazing performances. STILL ALICE is one of those movies.

Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is a college professor in linguistics. Her husband John (Alex Baldwin) adores her, she has three grown children (Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish and Kristen Stewart) and her life seems perfect. Then one day she notices that she’s been forgetting things. She finds herself in the middle of a lecture with no clue where she is in her speech. Most alarming she one day finds herself jogging on the campus where she teaches with no clue where she is.

Seeking help Alice visits a neurologists. The test results come back and she discovers she has a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Hoping for the best she hesitates but late one night breaks the news to her husband. It’s an emotional scene where he tries to rationalize things, to entertain the idea that perhaps it’s something else, but Alice breaks down with so much fear, anger and frustration that boil up so quickly it presents an honest moment in the character.

Worse yet is the discovery that this rare form of the disease not only affects her but can be hereditary as well. Alice and John bring their children together to inform them of the problem as well as the possibility that they too could have the disease. Each handles it differently, revealing the depth of their characters as well. Anna (Bosworth), the married career oriented of the group who has just found out she is pregnant displays the most fear. Tom (Parrish), a college student finishing up school, is in shock. And Lydia (Stewart) becomes the most sympathetic of the three.

Lydia is the odd man out of the three siblings. She has turned her back on academia in favor of pursuing her dream to be an actress. Early on we see mother and daughter sharing time together with mom wishing she would return to school. There is a distance between the two but they still love one another. As things begin to change with Alice though, it is Lydia who is the most perceptive member of the family, the one who recognizes things early on and deals with them rather than her own self interests. Don’t get me wrong, the other two care and worry, but not to the extent that Lydia does.

As the movie progresses so does the effects of the disease. This is where Moore shines, delivering a performance that garnered her an Oscar win. She doesn’t play the character for immediate sympathy but while watching you can’t help but feel sympathetic. As Alice’s life slowly unravels it is seen in each moment that Moore slowly plays out her life and how the disease gets to her. There is no over the top moment in this performance. While sad, it is truly touching to watch.

For me the most mind blowing portion of the film is when Alice looks at John and tells him that she wishes she had cancer. When he tells her not to say that she explains that at least with cancer there is awareness, that people hold walks and wear ribbons to let others know. That struck me. It was a bold and true statement. There is more known about a number of diseases and yet this one may affect more of us than we realize. To think of what it must be like to see your mind disappearing right before your eyes, to be unable to speak clearly, to communicate or to understand the simplest thing is a terrifying concept. This film brings that to light in a way that is never boring or cliché.

As I said, there have been disease of the week movies made in the past that brought awareness with them but did little more. They felt cold and clinical with performances that added nothing to the story. This film is much more than that. It ties in not just the disease itself but the way it takes hold of each member of this family as well as the woman at the focus of the tale. In so doing it touches on a deeper lever than most movies of this type do. So much so that my guess is once you see this film you will find yourself thinking much more about Alzheimer’s than you did prior to watching. A movie that is a must see for all.

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