Still Alice is the scariest gods damned movie I've seen all year. It's no secret that I like horror films. I'll sit through jump scares, gore and all kinds of traditional terror. But the debilitating fear of watching someone slowly lose themselves to early onset Alzheimer's is almost more than I could stomach.
Julianne Moore was amazing in this film. It was a tender, complete and in depth look at what it feels like to go through this unwanted transformation, both for the Alzheimer's sufferer and for their loved ones. It is impossible to watch the film and not say to yourself, "this could be me, or my mom, or my best friend." It was impossible to watch it unemotionally.
The beauty offered through the pain was the idea that there is more to love and connection with another person than what language can contain and the idea that perhaps a person who appears to be getting lost in this transition can still be reached and supported, if we can let go of our rigid ideas about how that love and connection needs to be expressed. It wasn't a large hope, mind you, but in a film this rough, I'll cling to whatever I can find.
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