Review of “Away From Her”
Under ideal circumstances, audiences suspend all other realities when entering the movie house. Actors, regardless of their public personas or previous portrayals, become the characters on the screen right then. They are of the moment.
Sigh. It cannot always be so.
There are more than a few members of the baby boomer generation — we are the children, 1945 — who cannot bear to consider viewing Away From Her. No matter how much comfort gained with our advancing years, the thought of Julie Christie with Alzheimer’s Disease is too much to bear. Cinematically. of course. Thank heavens.
Julie Christie who was Darling.
Julie Christie who was Petulia.
Julie Christie — Lara with her own theme song — who trained across Siberia in Dr. Zhivago.
Julie Christie who enchanted Warren Beatty — all of us — in Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait. That Julie Christie, always the accessible charmer, preternaturally beautiful, yet without guile or artifice. Portraying a character with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Say it ain’t so.
Alas. It is so.
Away From Her is a paradigm of adult drama. This is serious film making, considering subject matter of primary interest to mature audiences. It is a quiet, contemplative yet sublime consideration of one of the most vexing of aging’s realities.
Christie and Gordon Pinsent are husband and wife of forty four mostly stalwart years. They’ve lived harmoniously in the north woods for the last twenty since he retired as a university professor. The hike. They cross country ski. They read together. By all appearances they are comfortable, devoted.
She starts forgetting. Putting the washed and dried sauce pan in the freezer instead of the cupboard. He’s well aware of the confusing changes. She too. Her decision, against his judgment is to enter a nursing facility that caters to the similarly addled. There, she takes up with another patient, silent, wheelchair-bound Michael Murphy, forgetting — so it seems — her longstanding partner.
Both actors are brilliantly understated with their performances. Much is learned from silence and long looks. Chrisite will certainly garner attention come award time. In a just world, so will Pinsent. Since it is his film as much as hers, perhaps more so.
The scenario is one that, in lesser hands, could have easily morphed maudlin. Fortunately young director Sarah Polley displays elan and perspective well beyond her years. Here she displays an acute and knowing eye, as well as pitch perfect tone. It is easy to imagine a more significant future for her behind the camera than in front.
Such is Polley’s discipline that she fosters an eerily astute performance from Olympia Dukakis, who plays Murphy’s wife. Dukakis is prone to chew scenery. Here she is right.
The only sour portrayal is that of Wendy Crewson, who plays the strident director of the nursing home. Off key as it is, it’s not enough to spoil the proceedings.
Away From Her is a somber yet sweet view of a sad life situation. I repeat. Julie Christie remains luminescent despite the lines around her eyes. Gordon Pinsent is quietly powerful as a forgotten spouse, who strives to maintain his love. This is a touching and tender film of the highest quality, the kind we see rarely these days.
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