Away from Her

 

Away From Her 2006

• Director: Sarah Polley
• Seen by this director: No others yet, but I recently saw her in The Secret Life of Words. She was brilliant. I would like to see more directed by her.
• Based on the short story by Alice Munro.
• Cast: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsett, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Wendy Crewson, Kristen Thomson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Julie Christie – Glorious 39, The Secret Life of Words (see above), Finding Neverland, Harry Potter, Hamlet, Memories of a Survivor, Nashville, McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Go-Between, Petulia, Dr Zhivago, Far from the Madding Crowd, Fahrenheit 451, Darling
• Gorson Pinsett – Pillars of the Earth, The Shipping News
• Olympia Dukakis - Steel Magnolias, Working Girl, Moonstruck, John and Mary
• Michael Murphy – X-Men the Last Stand, Nashville, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, McCabe and Mrs Miller, M.A.S.H., TV series
• Wendy Crewson – On the Basis of Sex, Room
• Why? Julie Christie
• Seen: 12 November 2022      

Fiona (Christie) and Grant (Pinsent) live in a cottage in northern Ontario. They have a loving marriage. She is suffering from advancing Alzheimer’s. He knows it. She knows it. She tries to be brave and cheerful and realistic, and makes the decision to move to an upscale nursing home. He is devastated.

As her condition worsens, Grant watches Fiona disappear from him and their life together, which he realises from her alienation wasn’t as simple as he had thought.

Depressing, yes. Much of a similar situation I have seen close-up. But it’s so well done and the acting is so good that I am in awe. It is possibly Christie’s most stunning performance, and that’s saying a lot.      

4 ½ * of 5