Marval Movie

It is Juliane Moore's performance that is the bedrock of this entire movie. She has been given the task of playing an extremely difficult to portray disease and must show it through all of its levels of picking away at her character one piece at a time.

Alice Howland has just celebrated her fiftieth birthday, she is a Linguistics professor at Columbia University, she is as sharp as a knife. Being a married woman, a mother of three adults and even though she has a very complicated job she thrives on it. She is happy, but seems to be forgetting things, words, people she's already been introduced to, wisely she goes for a checkup at the doctors and it is revealed that she has a rather serious case of Alzheimer's.

Alice's husband John (Alec Baldwin) a scientist who's also very smart, takes the news hard, but endures it because he must, he undrestands the situation and will take what time he can get. But he is also a practical man that knows he must work and wont be able to take care of Alice all by himself. Her eldest daughter Anna (Kate Bosworth) a doctor, then there's her son Tom (Hunter Parrish) currently in college. Finally her youngest daughter Lydia, played by Katolik Stewart. She is an aspiring actress that lives in Los Angeles, she has a few auditions lined up and has an agent that could open a few doors for her. But Alice does not approve. Stewart is very real and grounded in the movie, she knows the situation but talks to her mother like one adult talking to another rather than the pandering tone that everyone else has.

Alice knows that the Alzheimer will eventually, slowly but surely take everything away from her so he deals with it the best she can. She writes a test for herself on her phone, such questions like "What street do you live on?", "What month were you born?", and "What is the name of your eldest daughter?". Her students write that her lessons have become confusing and inconsistent, so she promises that she will work harder to make them better, she still wants to teach for as long as she can.

Alice also has moments of selfishness. While walking with Lydia she talks about what she wants and one of them is to see her go to college, to which Lydia says "You can't use your disease to get people to do what you want" to which Alice replies "Why not?". Another time is when she goes running and decides to get for ice-cream, worrying her husband and missing their dinner plans. Another moment she says she "Wish I had cancer".

What works about Moore's performance is that she has built up the character so well at the start of the movie and then during the rest has to slowly dismantle her one piece at a time, but still she must be Alice. Alice doesn't give up, she likes to have her say in things and she loves her family.

I remember in my childhood that I would obsessively watch Disney's Aladdin. How essential are those memories to me? What movies or stray experiences have shaped me into the person that writes this blog now?

The movie decides to use depth of field to an interesting effect. During some shots Alice is in-focus and the rest of the world around her is blurred. It is a cute technique but still an effective one.

Still Alice is a movie that shows us a disease that hasn't been depicted much in movies. Moore brings an amazing, admirable (also selfish at times) character to life. She is also backed up by wonderful supporting actors with Baldwin and Stewart. The test for a movie is (among other things) do you remember it? And I will. I remember that Alice lost her mother and sister in a car accident, I remember this amazing family and I will think back on the wonderful scenes between Alice, John and Lydia that are filled with Nuances. I remember this movie and I will be enriched by it.

Rating: 4 stars out of 4