Still Alice

It probably goes without saying, but in my opinion "Still Alice" is right up there among this year's best pictures.

And what ultimately makes author Lisa Genova's debut bestselling novel so personal, yet so universal and identifiable in it's messages, are the performances. Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart are a part of a strong supporting cast, that will leave a lasting impression in your mind and it will be more than deserved. Both of their characters were so real - warm, supportive and earthly. And while both Baldwin and Stewart have taken the occasional misstep in their respective pasts, both of them once again showed without a doubt their acting abilities and scope, a word linguistics professor Dr. Alice Howland used, albeit with great difficulties, to describe her daughter Lydia (played by Stewart) in one point of the film.

And what a performance by Julianne Moore that was! She essentially made an already rich character in Alice, a frankly too young Alzheimer's disease patient, who also happens to be a renown linguistics professor, even more dimensional and rich. Moore's Alice is a strong, intelligent woman when we first meet her at her birthday at the beginning of the film. At that moment, Moore is confident and full of purpose. As she gets diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's disease, that her children might have inherited from her, and time goes by, Alice becomes a shadow of herself, whose mental health deteriorates at an alarmingly fast rate. And that is the part that Moore portrayed with such skill and graceful pain, that the viewer can't help but get irreversibly emotionally involved with her character. We feel for her, we cry with her, we wish she would get better, although it is clear that is sadly not going to happen. And Moore's Alice knows it as well. And that makes the journey through her story even more challenging, difficult and painful for the viewer. Or as Beverly Beckham of The Boston Globe put it "This is Alice Howland's story, for as long as she can tell it".

The film was directed and adapted by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, who share both the writing and directing duties on almost all of their projects to date. The two somehow complete each other and find the balance, that is needed to tell such a delicate story in a manner, which can do it proper justice.

I will probably be the only one saying this, but I thought the score was tremendous as well. Kudos goes to composer Ilan Eshkeri, who did an amazing job on the film. The music is often intense and minimalistic, it feels like it is just an addition to the already rich environment the characters find themselves in and I would love to see at least a nomination at the Oscars for Eshkeri, although I highly doubt it.

So, to wrap it up in a nutshell: Still Alice is a wonderful film, an intimate and fascinating study in the field of family drama, and one of the year's best. I definitely hope to see some awards buzz mainly around the cast - both Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart deserve it for their delicate and supportive portrayal of husband John and youngest daughter Lydia, respectively, who never gave up on Moore's Alice. And Julianne Moore - well, what can I say - her brutally sad and honest portrayal of Alice deserves to go down in the books of top-notch acting and she will reap the fruits of her work a long time from now (well, mostly, at the end of February, I hope).

So it is a nine out of ten stars from me, only because I felt there could have been more screen time for the other children in the Howland family, and therefore the film could have been at least 10-15 minutes longer.

But solely on Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart's impeccable acting, I say this film is among the very best in the subject and also among the best titles this year.

My grade: 9/10

This movie was a great boost to my psyche as someone who has watched my own mother lose her ability to be the fascinating and clever woman she once was. The performances of Alec Baldwin and Ms. Stewart really impressed me. Julianne Moore is always good.

If you have lived with the loneliness and the torture of watching someone you love lose his or her mind this movie may just give you the strength to go on.

Julianne Moore's performance is particularly compassionate. This movie depicts an excruciating illness, but also illuminates the heroes who emerge and the grace which is possible despite loss.

I have a sister in law at age 66 with end stage ALZ and I myself have stage 4 terminal brain cancer at age 62. I haven't been able to adequately and satisfactorily articulate the effect of loss of memory as well as this movie did. I have lost everything, but I have memories that bubble to the surface that keep me going. Life is not about stuff. Life is animating memories.

"So live in the moment I tell myself, it really is all I can do, live in the moment."

Still Alice is a film that touches delicate subject matters, which sometimes don't make for a compelling watch. It's hard to sit down and watch someone suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and witness their slow deterioration as they gradually lose their mind. Somehow, Julianne Moore gives such a powerful performance that makes this delicate theme worth your while. She carries this film, and elevates it from your standard mental illness movie. Julianne Moore is on the top of her game and following her strong performance in Maps to the Stars, she delivers an authentic portrayal of a woman trying to come to grips with her terrible diagnosis. The film intelligently centers on her in a very authentic way instead of focusing on the rest of her family, like so many films tend to do when the character has hit rock bottom with their mental disease. As the title suggests, the focus is on Alice and her character is fully developed even when she is at her lowest. As an audience we sometimes tend to look away or find ways to ignore people with mental illness, and many films do so by focusing on the reaction of the rest of the family or on the loved ones as if the main character has lost his or her personality. But we are reminded in this film that Alice is still Alice, and Julianne Moore makes sure we come to grips with this. Julianne Moore will probably be nominated for her lead performance here and it wouldn't surprise me if she wins her first Oscar after her fifth nomination. She is long overdue.

It's no surprise that this film was delivered in such an authentic way when you take into consideration that the co-director, Richard Glatzer, suffers from ASL and can't speak himself. If a film wants to deliver a powerful and empathetic film about mental illness, then there is no better way to do so than having someone who is experiencing this first hand. Glatzer, who has co-directed his previous films with Wash Westmoreland, reunites with him once again co-writing the adapted screenplay from Lisa Genova's novel. I know the issue has been explored many times before and one could assume it enters familiar territory, but Moore's portrayal of the character makes this film stand out from others. For people who have gone through similar issues with a family member or close friend, Still Alice hits home, but it does so in a compassionate way. It reminds us how fragile our minds and life can be. Having Moore play a highly intelligent linguistic professor makes this all the more shocking as we see how she struggles with the disease. The most emotional moment of the film comes when Moore's character is giving a touching speech about how she is dealing with the disease. It was a powerful moment in the movie and Moore deserves all the recognition she's been getting for her performance. Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart both give strong supporting performances as well. The entire film rings true in its exploration of mental illness, and the performances never go over the top. Everything about this film rings true despite the delicate themes that are touched. The subject matter might not be appealing for most audiences and they may find the film tedious, but for me it hits home and I found it to be a compelling drama.

I know that a lot of the criticism is that this movie didn't get down and dirty enough. Alzheimers is a horrible thing for the survivors to deal with. Perhaps it can only truly by dealt with in documentary form. Julianne Moore is utterly amazing and anyone who says this film isn't well researched did not read about her approach. Yes, there are things that could have been shown to make it even more frightening. We could have seen specific bodily functions affected. We could have seen more irrationality and pain. But it needs to be accessible. I believe if we are watching a fictional account, this is very well done.