Review of the Movie “Away from her”

It has been said that Alzheimer's is the only "major" terminal condition to exact a greater toll on the family than the victim. Compared to cancer (for example), Alzheimer's offers a relatively gentle journey into oblivion for the patient, a gradual dissolution of memory and personality. For the caregivers, however, the experience is different. They must watch as a loved one disappears, stolen away piece by piece, before their eyes. The process of mourning begins before the patient has died.

Because it's such a difficult and unpalatable disease, Alzheimer's has not been a popular subject for motion pictures. Sarah Polley's feature debut, Away from Her, represents one of the few clear-headed, uncompromising looks at the condition and its impacts. In large part due to Polley's approach, this is not a relentless downer. Calling it "life affirming" might be a stretch but it at least offer moments of hope and an understanding of what it means to move on while at the same time remaining true to the past. The tone is different from that of other movies that have wrestled with Alzheimer's. Unlike The Notebook and Iris, Away from Her does not embrace the tear-jerker label. It is sad and touching, but not a tragedy, and it does not seek to reduce its audience to hopeless weeping (Berardinelli, 03).

Away from Her is based on Alice Munro's short story, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain," and Polley's adaptation is faithful. The screenplay expands slightly upon its source material, but there are no exceptional additions or deletions. The characters in the movie are cut from the same whole cloth as those in the story. By carefully choosing her cast, Polley has successfully translated the men and women of the book onto the screen.

The film presents the situation from ...