Still Alice
Starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin
Directed by Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland
In the hands of a less capable lead actress, Still Alice would amount to a glossy Lifetime movie of the week. Thankfully, Julianne Moore is positively spellbinding in the Oscar-worthy role of a linguistics professor struggling with a shocking diagnosis.
After she forgets a word while giving a university lecture and gets temporarily lost during a routine campus jog, Dr. Alice Howland (Moore) receives devastating news that she is suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's. To make matters worse, the rare condition could potentially be passed on to her three children (Hunter Parrish, Kate Bosworth and Kristen Stewart).
As Alice’s downward spiral begins, her family bonds are tested especially when it comes to her husband John (Baldwin), who seems more interested in furthering his own career than with providing long-term care for his ailing wife. Moore is simply sensational in the role and she needs to be in order to elevate the sometimes hackneyed script and weepy, overbearing musical score.
The slow decay and creeping intellectual demise of her character is so palpable it’s easy to forgive the film’s slight missteps. There is nothing particularly unique or stylized about what directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland bring to the movie but the acting speaks for itself with a surprisingly poignant performance from Stewart.
Still Alice is a difficult journey, mired in loss and utter heartbreak, yet it manages to keep a tiny flame of optimism flickering and helps bring some dignity to the culture surrounding an often misunderstood and terrible disease.
