GORDON PINSENT and Julie Christis in "Away From Her."
Film a necessary look at Alzheimer'sI don’t know anything about Sarah Polley or Alice Munro. They are writers and Polley the director of “Away From Her.”
But I suspect these people know a great deal about the terrible disease known as Alzheimers.
Remember Oscar-winner Julie Christie of “Doctor Zhivago” and “Demon Seed” fame?
Today she plays Fiona Anderson, the wife of a retired college professor. They lived the intellectual life in a country home lined with books.
We see them sit together as husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) reads to her.
But their comfortable lives take a terrible turn. Fiona shows signs of Alzheimer’s.
She labels the drawers so she can remember where the dinnerware is housed, vs. cutlery, pots and pans and more.
She easily becomes disoriented.
At one point, she heads out walking along the highway. It takes hours for Grant to find her and bring her home.
During her lucid moments, they plan for the future, the future being life in an institution.
He plans it as a temporary situation. She knows better. You don’t get better from Alzheimer’s.
Grant visits the facility first. It’s all new, with large, bright rooms and plenty of natural lighting.
The administrator begins to show him the second floor, where the more progressed patients are living. Grant says no, there’s no need. She won’t be going there. Progressed patients, you see, are those who are deteriorating.
On the way to the home, the Christie character reminds her husband of his many affairs with students. Her short-term memory may be gone, but for now, long-termmemory is intact. It won’t be for long.
Christie is such a good actress and especially after her character deteriorates, her scenes seem so chillingly real.
The hospital has a policy. After a patient is admitted, he or she can see no one from the outside for a month.
This proves tremendously bad. When Grant returns, he is shocked to find her mothering another patient, Aubrey, played by veteran actor Michael Murphy. Murphy’s role is to sit frozen in a wheelchair, occasionally crying.
She agrees to talk to her husband briefly, as long as Aubrey isn’t disturbed.
Eventually, Grant visits Aubrey’s wife, played by Olympia Dukakis, and out of loneliness or because he feels he should, starts an affair with her. Aubrey is only a patient while the Dukakis character is away from home. He leaves the facility when she returns and Fiona starts to deteriorate.
Fiona treats Grant politely but coolly. She doesn’t appear to know who he is anymore.
Eventually what wasn’t going to happen does happen. Fiona must move to the second floor.
And like other patients, when she seems to have gotten worse and worse, she suddenly seems fairly lucid for a day.
This is a very real, very compelling, very necessary story.
This isn’t one of those films with the classic rock soundtrack populated by beautiful young people. You won’t find a lot of computer-generated imagery in this picture.
But it is so worth seeing.
Julie Christie has made a career out of playing interesting people very well. This must have been a particularly difficult part to perform, but she’s more than up to the task.
This is a stellar effort.
It isn’t “Doctor Zhivago,” but in it’s own way, it’s just as good.
Away From Her
Starring Grant Anderson, Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis
Runtime: 110 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some mild sexual situations
Three stars out of four
This appeared in Weekender January 11, 2008 in the Ashtabula Star Beacon.
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