Away From Her

Away From Her tells the story of Fiona (Julie Christie) who is succumbing to Alzheimer's. Grant (Gordon Pinsent) feeling unable to cope with caring for her and with her agreement sends her to a care center. The film focuses on Fiona's degeneration from the disease and Grant's attempts to cope with a wife he remembers but who doesn't remember him.

The story is based on a short story and written for the screen and directed by the actress Sarah Polley. The story is effective with well developed characters. It seems more true to a very real disease than say the overly sentimental The Notebook. Likewise Grant's and Fiona's love is not untainted or pure. It is this attention to story detail that makes for an engrossing film.

Grant has to view Fiona's transfer of affection through the lens of past indiscretion. He must balance her happiness and his pain. And painfully he must try to connect with the woman he loves without knowing at any given time if she will know who he is. Marian (Olympia Dukakis) as the wife of Fiona's new affection also plays an important role which requires Grant to make a significant decision in the name of his love of Fiona.

Polley's direction is fairly plain. It relies heavily on its story and its performers. Not that these are bad things to rely on. It stumbles a bit in its pacing at times. There is also some unnecessary re-sequencing that doesn't demonstrably improve the story by their placement. It almost feels done as a cheap trick to avoid a charge of too simple direction. A tighter edit and a more traditionally shot narrative would have been fine.

But the praise of this film truly belongs to its lead actors, Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent. Christie flows so effortlessly from fully aware to forgetting that its easy to believe her character is suffering from this condition. Crucial still to Christie's performance is Pinsent who must react to all that he sees. From the way in which he tries to counter Fiona's degeneration to the pain of watching her shower attention on another, Pinsent creates a memorable character.

The combination of elements make a good if not quite great film. The story is effective and is benefited by its cast. Most of the simple direction works although relying a bit too much on its story. Still its faults are more than compensated by its strengths and Polley's potential as writer and director is something to look forward to in the future.