LoginSince I kept hearing some pretty good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after an impressive career going over more than 2 decades, Julianne Moore was finally awarded her first Academy Award and, after watching the damned thing, it is pretty obvious that she really deserved it. And yet, even if Moore was really good, I’m not so sure if the movie itself was actually so amazing. I mean, Alzheimer is a terrible disease and the makers gave a solid portrayal but the movie never went really beyond this portrayal, I’m afraid. Indeed, she notices the first symptoms, she gets her diagnosis, she tells her family and the disease starts to take its toll. Sure, all of this was rather well done but if you are familiar with this disease and, like me, you have already seen a couple of movies dealing with this subject, it felt rather limited and predictable. Furthermore, even though there was an interesting cast (Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth), all their characters were rather poorly developed and you wonder why they even bothered hiring such high-profile actors for such thankless parts. There was even a son but the situation was even worse for him as he had maybe 2 lines of text through the whole thing. The only interesting conflict was maybe with Alec Baldwin’s character who was still focusing on his career while his wife was terribly sick but even this aspect of the story was barely developed. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a good flick thanks to a very strong Julianne Moore so it is still worth a look but I was actually hoping for something better considering the very strong material.
Still Alice (2014) Reviews
A good movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 24 January 2017 08:47
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Still Alice
Posted : 9 years ago on 28 April 2015 08:49
Sometimes a bit too tasteful and generic, but when Still Alice narrows its focus down to how this exact family and woman in particular deal with her diagnosis and eventually descent, it's deeply moving stuff. Praise for much of it working goes to Julianne Moore’s central performance and Kristen Stewart’s sober, quiet supporting work as her youngest daughter.
Too often though Still Alice focuses on the abstract reality of living with a degenerative disease and not the day-to-day grind. The story draws us in the most when it reveals how linguist professor Alice deals with the betrayal of her mind, or the emotional drainage that her husband is feeling. Numerous scenes that display the ugly, naked emotions are deeply felt and quite affecting. It’s just that they’re surrounded by moments that feel like a checklist from this kind of melodrama instead of organically emerging from the narrative.
Case in point, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish appear as Alice’s older children, but they’re missing in action for much of the running time. Moore really only interacts with Alec Baldwin as her dutiful and supportive husband, and Stewart as her actress daughter. Baldwin and Stewart nail their respective roles, a scene late in the film in which has an emotional breakdown in front of Stewart lingers as one of the few times when Still Alice shakes off the prestige and goes for the real, gritty, ugly drama.
Still Alice works so successfully because of Julianne Moore. Always a dependable actress, she’s delivered a gallery of troubled wives and mothers of dynamic range. And her work here is just as good as her beloved turns in Magnolia or The End of the Affair. She makes Alice into a real person, and her final moment with Stewart is a gut-punch. It’s also the final scene of the film, so while Still Alice may have stumbled along its way towards the finish line, it finishes on a very strong note.
Too often though Still Alice focuses on the abstract reality of living with a degenerative disease and not the day-to-day grind. The story draws us in the most when it reveals how linguist professor Alice deals with the betrayal of her mind, or the emotional drainage that her husband is feeling. Numerous scenes that display the ugly, naked emotions are deeply felt and quite affecting. It’s just that they’re surrounded by moments that feel like a checklist from this kind of melodrama instead of organically emerging from the narrative.
Case in point, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish appear as Alice’s older children, but they’re missing in action for much of the running time. Moore really only interacts with Alec Baldwin as her dutiful and supportive husband, and Stewart as her actress daughter. Baldwin and Stewart nail their respective roles, a scene late in the film in which has an emotional breakdown in front of Stewart lingers as one of the few times when Still Alice shakes off the prestige and goes for the real, gritty, ugly drama.
Still Alice works so successfully because of Julianne Moore. Always a dependable actress, she’s delivered a gallery of troubled wives and mothers of dynamic range. And her work here is just as good as her beloved turns in Magnolia or The End of the Affair. She makes Alice into a real person, and her final moment with Stewart is a gut-punch. It’s also the final scene of the film, so while Still Alice may have stumbled along its way towards the finish line, it finishes on a very strong note.
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Still Alice (2014) review
Posted : 9 years, 3 months ago on 3 February 2015 01:16
actors performing have a much too calm reaction to this dramatic event IMO (director's choice obviously). still not a bad movie, however it's a little too melodramatic for me. and much too slow.
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