Julianne Moore Anchors the Heartbreaking 'Still Alice' (Review)

Julianne Moore is one of my favorite actors. When she won the Academy Award earlier this year, I was happy for her. She has been putting out stellar work for over twenty years in films like Safe, Far From Heaven, The Kids Are All Right and Magnolia. She’s versatile, has exceptional command over her body language and finds a way to push herself to the emotional extreme and maintain her integrity.

Based on the 2007 novel by Lisa Genova, Still Alice is written and directed by Richard Glatzer (who has sadly passed away recently) and Wash Westmoreland. Moore stars alongside Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish and Stephen Kunken. The film was shot by French cinematographer Denis Lenoir and edited by Nicolas Chaudeurge.

Alice (Moore) is a linguistics professor at Columbia. When she starts experiencing odd memory lapses, she visits a neurologist (Kunken), who after a series of tests, diagnoses her with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. This puts a strain on her marriage to medical researcher John (Baldwin) and her relationships with her children (Stewart, Bosworth and Parrish). At first, Alice does her best to live with the disease, using technology and memory tests to keep her afloat. But eventually her condition worsens.

Glatzer and Westmoreland’s script is honest, raw and authentic. The film treats Alice and her condition with respect and dignity. There is nothing manipulative or exploitative about Alice’s story and that should be commended. I liked how Alice tried to take control of her disease, how she remained determined and motivated to keep her life as normal as possible. Alice is no victim. This isn’t some degrading, sappy melodrama but an earnest and emotionally charged film. Alice is a strong character and her story is tragic but it earns the tragedy.

It would have been easy for the film to coast on its lead actor and affecting theme. But Glatzer and Westmoreland add some keen directorial touches, like scenes where everything but Alice is out of focus to reflect her mental state or keeping the people Alice interacts with off-camera at crucial points. The film works hard to bring the audience along this journey with Alice.

While Moore’s Oscar win can be seen as a “career Oscar,” she is still giving an honest-to-goodness performance. This is one of her best performances; the way she folds into herself as the film progresses is a genius choice, instead of going the opposite route. Alec Baldwin gives solid support; their natural chemistry gives a lot of life to the film. Kristen Stewart does some of her best work in this movie. It’s great to see her go back to her indie roots with a character she can really relish in playing. Her interactions with Moore are terrific; it’s a great depiction of a mother/daughter relationship. Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish are fine as Alice’s other children, each with a few key moments to shine.

Still Alice is not an easy film to watch. At a brisk but tough 100 minutes, it takes you along a poignant journey. While I wouldn’t call it uplifting—that’s too cheap and “Hollywood” a term for a film like this—it does show how resilience and familial support can help anyone survive. This is a small independent film (it cost about $5 million to make) and it probably doesn’t have a large visibility on a larger scale. I do hope people seek it out through Video OnDemand or Redbox, because it is the rare drama film that feels true to itself and its subject matter.

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