The Case for Being Still

Still Alice is/was an Oscar nom this year, so of course I had to go for it.

In this amazing film, the luminous Julianne Moore shows off her amazing acting mettle, her mega wattage fading as her character, Alice, is diagnosed and then succumbs to early onset Alzheimers disease.  Its an incredible performance, with the film showing us her point of view as her world narrows and her faculties fail and she rather rapidly becomes a shadow of the person she formerly was.

It’s a bit of a shame then that her family is so remarkably perfect.  Perfect husband (played distractingly by Alec Baldwin, who I half expected to pull a Jack Donneghy whenever he started talking) and her perfect older daughter (a successful married lawyer, played a seemingly plastic Kate Bosworth) and her perfect son (doctor in training and womanising yet attentive) and her more rebellious but still gorgeous and intelligent and loving daughter, played by the beautiful but constantly eye-rolling and misunderstood Kristen Stewart).  When Alice is on screen, it is amazing; when her family get more than a few lines, it is close to irritating.

Overall though, I really liked the film.  The central performance is absolutely outstanding and raises the film above the Hallmark quality of the rest of it, even if it has a fairly A-list-ish cast. 

All power to Moore then – she deserves all the accolades.

Verdict: Still Alice is a touching film showing Julianne Moore at her most sympathetic.  It made me wonder about people who aren’t as financially and familially comfortable who find themselves with the same condition, but its hard not to be moved by Moore’s portrayal.  7 letters out of 10.