Still Alice

                                                                   

“On my good days I can almost pass for a normal person but on my bad days I feel like I can’t find myself”  --Julianne Moore in Still Alice

Julianne Moore is with very few exceptions, consistently the most interesting person in any film that she appears in.  I remember first noticing her as Annabella Sciorra’s best friend in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.  Her character, Marlene, a hard driving realtor, is introduced by her husband saying “She’s on the phone”, when he arrives for a dinner party and Marlene is in the car on a car phone, which made a pretty funny line in 1992, when car phones (but not cell phones) were available.  Immediately I could tell that he would not dare to suggest that she get off the phone before she is ready.

In 1993 Moore had a very memorable, but also small, in Short Cuts, as a woman who makes an interesting confession to her husband while ironing and naked from the waist down, showing strength and vulnerability at the same time.  She appeared as an overworked doctor in The Fugitive, who quickly figures out that Harrison Ford’s Richard Kimble is not the janitor he pretends to be.  It is only a couple of scenes but in those scenes we see how much energy the doctor needs to keep up with constant incoming patients that need immediate diagnosis  and then in her last scene with Gerard we see how tired she is.  Apparently the role was supposed to be much bigger but it was decided to reduce it to focus on Kimble’s plight, instead of a romance that the film did not need.  

Throughout the 90s I saw Moore in several other films including Nine Months, a silly pregnancy comedy with Hugh Grant, Assassins, a fairly boring action thriller with Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas that Moore’s character, Elektra, almost saves with her energetic presence.  I never saw Boogie Nights, since the subject matter did not interest me.  In 2001 she famously took over the role of Clarice Starling in Hannibal when Jodie Foster declined to reappear.  While it was disappointing not to have Foster back it was great that an actress of the same caliber took over the role and Moore was completely convincing as a disillusioned Clarice, a little more outspoken than in Silence.  

In 2009 Moore appeared as Colin Firth’s socialite (and English) best friend in A Single Man, giving the film many of its best scenes.   In 2010 Moore was in The Kids are Alright as Annette Bening’s partner.  Although Bening received most of the critical attention I thought Moore had the more interesting character.  In 2012 Moore appeared in Game Change, flawlessly portraying Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign.  It is the only time I can recall Moore appearing without her red hair.  She plays Palin as charming, a little naïve, but mostly overwhelmed by the intensity of the campaign and unwilling to accept her role as a supporter of the McCain character played by Ed Harris, preferring to stick to her own agenda. 

In Still Alice, based on a book by the same name by Lisa Genova (which I have not yet read) Julianne Moore plays Alice Howlan, a linguistics professor who at age 50 is diagnosed with early-onset Alzeimher’s disease.  The film examines this affliction for most of the story from Alice’s point of view, but also explores the effect on her family.  Please note, I will be discussing the end of the film in this post.

The film and Moore have an interesting challenge in portraying the affliction.  It would be easy to show Alice as perfectly fine one minute and then struggling fiercely in others but the film opts for a more subtle approach.  Alice struggles in small moments, unable to remember the word she is going to use, forgetting little things, getting lost while jogging in a familiar place and only occasionally loses her sense of place and it never occurs to her that she could have Alzeimer’s since the disease normally only affects people age 65 or older.  When her husband, who is a doctor (though not a neurologist) and son (who is in medical school) both learn of this their reactions are disbelief.

Alice’s husband John is played by Alec Baldwin.  Alice and John’s three children, Anna, Hunter, and Lydia are played by Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, and Kristen Stewart respectively.  As the film started I was unaware who else was in the film, other than Julianne Moore, and when I saw Baldwin was playing Alice’s husband, I began to worry.  I knew that Alice would be fighting Alzeimer’s in the film and Baldwin often upper class self-centered jerks who cheat on their wives (Blue Jasmine, It’s Complicated).  At one point in particular John had to leave the dinner table to take a phone call and I thought it might be to talk to another woman but it appeared for the purposes of the plot that it was so the kids could argue about Alice in front of her (particularly the two sisters) since as soon as John gets back to the table he puts a halt to it.

John actually is pretty compassionate throughout most of the film and gives Alice a lot of support.  When Alice shows symptoms he never loses his patience with her and he is also a good father supporting all of his kids’ careers.  However his job does keep him busy and as Alice’s condition worsens John receives an offer to head up the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and he never considers turning it down even though Alice does not want to move there.  Instead he leaves but keeps the home in New York for Alice and Lydia to live in.

John does not seem to have a lot of faith in his decision, as he admits to his daughter that she is a “better man than” he is.  John was preparing for a life without Alice, likely by throwing himself into his work, and the job offer probably came earlier than would have been ideal (even Alice asks if he could hold off accepting for a year).  At the time John leaves the disease is advanced but Alice is still having some recognition of life even though her communication skills are deteriorated.  

Alice’s doctor tells her about two thirds of the way through the film that educated people often are able to cope with the disease due to high levels of resourcefulness.  Alice proves this early on as she uses her iPhone as a measuring stick, putting in questions to be answered every day, filling appointments, and playing an online word game with Anna.  When Alice, once a very polished public speaker, gives a speech about her conditions long after she has been forced to give up teaching, she uses a highlighter to mark her progress so she does not lose her place.  However all of these efforts only hold off the symptoms and when Alice accidentally leaves her iPhone in what appeared to be the wine fridge her main tool is gone and she begins to fades fast.

Alzeimer’s is not unusual in older people but by having it strike Alice in middle age it makes for an interesting study because any adult can now relate to her struggles, not just elderly ones. 

An interesting set of dual scenes that shows the progression of the disease is the video that Alice leaves for herself with the instructions to swallow the sleeping pills.  When Alice records the video the audience, while perhaps not agreeing with her decision or not quite knowing how to feel about it can see that Alice does not want a difficult life nor to be a burden to her family.  When Alice accidentally comes across the video, after losing her phone, the film almost takes on the essence of a time travel piece.  Alice seems so helpless and her other self in the video seems cruel, and cold, especially since the video Alice does not explain why the present Alice needs to take the pills.

John says something a little before this  that suggests that he has either somehow seen Alice’s video or that he knows how proudly self-reliant Alice is and is thinking along a parallel track.  John asks Alice if she still wants to be here.  Alice, at that point, does not follow the deeper meaner of the question but it does lead one to wonder how he would have responded if Alice had said no.

Apart from her marriage, the film focuses a lot on Alice’s relationship with Lydia, her youngest daughter who is acting as part of a theatre company in LA.  Since Alice is a professor she understandably places a high value on education and Lydia wants to instead focus on her acting ambitions, which Alice cannot relate to.  However after Lydia forgives Alice for unintentionally reading her journal they begin to connect through Lydia’s art.  Alice recognizes Lydia’s talent after seeing her perform in Chekov’s The Three Sisters (honing in on it more since she forgets that Lydia is her daughter) and then through Lydia’s plays, especially in the last scene.  Lydia even seems to eagerly sacrifice some of the momentum of her burgeoning career to be there for her mother.

The film’s closing beats are perfect, underlined by a moving score.  Lydia is reading a piece of a play that she is prepping to audition for. Alice looks completely lost trying to follow.  When Lydia asks her what it is about and Alice, with some effort says “Love” the screen turns white and “Still Alice” appears in large letters, showing that she is less of herself than anyone would want her to be but she is still there and more importantly, her daughter recognizes and values it, and is able to give her much needed moments of love.   

If you watch the film it is worth staying through most of the credits to hear the song "If I Had A Boat by Karen Elson,which was originally written by Lyle Lovett. ****