Away from Her (2007)

So what's it feel like when you have such a disregard for your indiscretions and then whamo you get them back fourfold while being open and honest, not assuming to hurt you? How many times have women gone through this in a marriage, relationship, camaraderie? Let's not even start to count!We were supposed to feel sorry for him I guess, but I was happy she found security in a sweet simple loving friendship. Keep reading those inane books about Iceland without any inflection and I would be bored to tears as well. What a moron, perhaps read "Alice in Wonderland" and make it fun with voices and animation cupcake.Julie is truly stunning after all these years after Zhivago and portrays many nuanced emotions well. I have cared for Alzheimer's patients and no one is ever this coherent or wearing adorable outfits.High recommend for getting even with that evil philandering husband back in the day and letting him feel that pain. And for Christie who is still amazing.

Sarah Polley's directorial debut is an impressive one. Mostly, she was successful in picking great actors. Grant Anderson (Gordon Pinsent) is suffering as his wife Fiona (Julie Christie) slowly loses her memories. She has Alzheimer's disease and gets placed in a long term care facility.The whole movie takes place on the face of Gordon Pinsent. His pain is evident every time she can't remember him. It is truly heartbreaking. Julie Christie delivers one of her greatest performances. She doesn't overact. The confusion isn't theatrical which could so easily taken as comical. It is a quiet suffering on the scraggly old face of Pinsent. The one out of step moment is the passing old man who comments that Grant's heart is breaking into a thousand pieces. It's too obvious and too on the nose.There is something about veteran actors taking all their life experiences and putting it on the screen. It's something that can't be faked. And it can't be done with younger actors. We saw a man breaking right in front of us on the screen.

Julie Christie provides a brilliant performance as Fiona Anderson, a mature attractive woman with Alzheimer's disease. As the disease progresses, her loving husband Grant Anderson (played brilliantly by Gordon Pinsent) puts her away in a nursing home where she is cared for round the clock. They have to spend the first month away from each other. When he does visit her, he is surprised to see her with Aubrey Park, a wheelchair bound man (played great by Michael Murphy). Despite a speechless performance, his facial expressions can say more than words could ever say. Anyway, Olympia Dukakis plays Aubrey's long-suffering wife, Marian. She does a great job in playing the role. Anyway, Grant visits his wife more than anybody else visits the home. While he must adjust to a life without her, it is painfully clear that she was his entire world. They were a childless couple of 44 years together. They lived in a beautiful home by the lake. I think Gordon Pinsent deserved equal recognition for his performance. Director and screenwriter, Sarah Polley weaves a tale of love and life in a realistic style. She is an up and coming director to watch out for. She brings and weaves a first rate cast with a realistic story.

Watching this movie, I was struck by its maturity and the way in which the two senior characters defy the stereotype of age, depicted as socially and sexually active people grappling with the loss of their independence through the insidious affliction of dementia (in this case, the diagnosis is probable Alzheimer's). Christie is just about ageless; that Doctor Zhivago was more than forty years ago when this film was made is testament to her longevity as an actress of distinction, and to her eternal beauty. Her character's (Fiona) cognisance of her deterioration as she fluctuates between lucidity and incoherence is frightening to contemplate.Fiona's forgetfulness is beginning to accelerate when we're introduced, her apparently long suffering husband Grant (Pinsent) familiar with the practice of looking in draws for misplaced items, turning off appliances and closing doors that have been opened for no apparent reason. He's trying to comprehend not only how he'll exist without his soul mate, but how he can offer her the dignity she deserves. As Fiona regresses in mind, he places her in care where she forms a co-dependency with in-patient Aubrey (Murphy). In turn, Grant and Aubrey's wife (Dukakis) forge a mutually beneficial relationship where the two can reveal their struggles and despair. Pinsent is stoic, courageous and he gives his character a mature integrity that is powerful to experience.I draw parallels between this film and the Jean Simmons - Joss Ackland drama "Daisies in December", as they both treat their senior subjects with dignity and forthrightness. There's no self indulgent sob stories, where the sympathy card is played at every given opportunity with the sole purpose of giving the audience damp eyes, and although it's at times confronting and uncomfortable, it is an apparently honest depiction of the nightmarish consequences of dementia. Tough to bear at times, but highly recommended.