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This critic sincerely hopes Away From Her will be remembered at Oscar nomination time.  This story of dealing with Alzheimer’s disease was written by actress Sarah Polley from Alice Munro’s short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain. It is an intelligent film that doesn’t get wordy and lets the emotional drama of this illness unfold in front of the audience. Julie Christie is Fiona, who has the disease, while Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent is her husband, Grant. We get to see facilities that become home to patients who are losing their memory and how families deal with anger on both sides of the disease. Life isn’t easy.

As the film opens, Fiona has been diagnosed with a memory-loss disease and is cared for by her husband, Grant at their lakeside home in Ontario. It is winter and they like to do cross-country skiing for exercise. Gordon has to be alert because Fiona sometimes leaves water boiling on the stove or puts a frying pan in the refrigerator. It’s when she wanders away and is gone for hours that they decide it is time for her to be in a Retirement Facility. Actually, it is a nice place with plenty of staff, activities, food, and private rooms. The manager (Wendy Crewson) is crisply efficient, but one nurse (Kristen Thomson) is full of understanding. Fiona seems eager to go, but there is a mandatory 30-day waiting period before they see each other again. When the 30 days is up, Gordon goes to Fiona’s room with books and flowers, but she isn’t there. Fiona is in the game room with a new friend, wheelchair-bound Aubrey (Michael Murphy as a mute) and doesn’t remember who Gordon is. Aubrey doesn’t have Alzheimer ’s disease, instead has brain injuries from an accident. Fiona is a good influence for Aubrey and persuades him to again attempt physical therapy and engage in playing cards. He begins to perk up. It is at this time that the focus of the film shifts from Fiona to Gordon and how he has to try to rebuild his life. It is an enormous task, because they have no children and live in an isolated region. Aubrey’s wife, Marian (played with bitter humor by Olympia Dukakis) greets Gordon with wariness at first, and eventually they talk about their problems. 

Fiona sums up her existence in one poignant sentence, “I am disappearing.” Her physical self will be there, but the essence of Fiona is going. To Gordon, however, she will always be there and this is the reason that after 40-some years of marriage, he always came home. Gordon was a teacher and took early retirement and a move to this lake home because of a certain situation in his past. The acting is natural and there are no hair-pulling dramatic scenes. Instead, it is something that is played out daily around the globe as one spouse deals with the illness of another. The photography is wonderfully done (Luc Montpellier) as is the imaginative soundtrack by Jonathan Goldsmith. Fiona is shown as a young woman and now as a 60-something woman who is getting the disease early and still has a fine figure and full head of hair. Setting the film in wintertimewhhich is the final age of man---is true to life. As the sun sets over Gordon’s lake, it really is setting in his life and relationships. There is no easy answer anymore.

Julie Christie inhabits the role of Fiona. She isn’t afraid to face the camera and her eyes range from knowing to vacant, with her body language from upright to slightly askew. Gordon Pincent, a well-known Canadian actor, has a profound speaking voice and it is put to good use as he reads “Letters From Iceland” to Fiona, who is from that country. Here is a man who commanded classrooms and now finds it difficult to command a lonely life. Michael Murphy is mute throughout the film, but his facial expressions are a study in acting. He “speaks” volumes. Humor is provided by the vocal asides from Olympia Dukakis, who loves her husband, but is now just plain worn out. "Away From Her" has an ensemble of four different actors that show life from acting skills achieved through living a total of 250 years. What a treasure. 

Copyright 2007 Marie Asner
Submitted 5/16/07