Monday, May 18, 2015

Movie Review - Still Alice

Still Alice
The movie, Still Alice is based on the book written by Lisa Genova. The book is a New York Times Bestseller and the movie has won more awards than I care to list. Despite these accolades, I'd never heard of the movie. I am so glad that I purchased a copy and enjoyed it so much that I have already viewed it twice this past weekend.  If you have not seen Still Alice, you may want to. 


Still Alice


Alice is a professional, highly educated, and highly respected woman who has successfully raised three children and maintained a marriage. She is healthy, active, and appears to have everything the American dream consists of.  Until she begins to lose the part of her that she feels most defines her - her cognitive functioning.

According to Mayo Clinic, dementia ...

..."describes a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily functioning."


Alice (played by Julianne Moore) begins to change, and declines fairly rapidly with her diagnosis of rare early onset Alzheimer's. While the movie is limited by time, we get a snapshot of how the world of a confident woman is turned upside, her family core shaken, and how family roles change. Incidents of seemingly normal forgetfulness turns to forgetting how to do mundane tasks, not recognizing places, forgetting family members.  As she struggles, her husband and children struggle and roles change. 

As in any real situation in which a family member becomes chronically or terminally ill, there are people who fade away and there are people who step up and take care of the ailing person. We watch these dynamics unfold in this love story. 



This movie brought me to tears. During some of the hard-to-watch scenes as Alice deteriorates as well as during some of the scenes that we witness how she is loved during this very difficult time. We learn very few of the facts of Early Onset Dementia. Instead, this is a very intimate look at one woman, one family, and the many feelings that dementia brings.  I wish I could describe my thoughts about the movie in-depth but I don't want to risk a spoiler. Instead, I want the seasons of her life to unfold in front of you as they did in front of me.

Just don't forget to bring the tissues when you sit down to watch Still Alice.


For more personal stories of living with a loved one who has Alzheimer's:


Chicken Soup for the Soul








Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”


5 comments:

  1. This is an excellent movie review Dawn Rae! It has just enough information to pique our interest without spoiling the entire plot. Alzheimers is a nasty, cruel disease that is devastating to families for a variety of reasons most of us wouldn't even imagine until we experience it. This is clearly a movie I would need to pick my time wisely to watch.

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  2. Sounds like a great movie. I love Julianne Moore anyway. thanks for the review.

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  3. Definitely a movie I will want to see. Thanks for reviewing such an important topic.

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  4. I've seen the trailer for this and had forgotten about it, I'll have to watch this one when I'm ready to bring out those tissues - your review has nudged me to add this to my list of movies to see

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  5. I've seen the trailer for this and had forgotten about it, I'll have to watch this one when I'm ready to bring out those tissues - your review has nudged me to add this to my list of movies to see

    ReplyDelete

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