Julianne Moore Deserves the Oscar for

Actress Julianne Moore has finally received an Academy Award after four other nominations. dd Based on the novel of the same name, by Lisa Genova,“Still Alice” is the story of Alice Howland (Moore), a linguistics professor at Columbia, who discovers that she has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.  As the disease progresses, the audience sees how this disease affects not only Alice but her family as well. 

I’m sure there are people out there who think, just based on the trailer and story, that this is an “Oscar-baiting” movie, and I can see why.  It features a well-known actor/actress, in this case  one who had been nominated several times for an Oscar and hadn’t won, and it deals with a disease that many are familiar with.  But this is far from being a just an “Oscar-baiting” film. 

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Julianne Moore is flawless.  There is a reason why this actress has maintained a career and is critically acclaimed.  She perfectly captures who Alice was before she was diagnosed and went into a slow decline in mental health. 

Thankfully, Moore does not try to make this a portrayal of a disease.  What I mean by that is that it isn’t romanticized.  There are no big inspirational moments, even though this lady has been plagued with a horrible disease.  The closest that it comes to that occurs when Alice gives a speech at an Alzheimer’s conference.  Even the speech is moving.  We see how the disease has taken its toll on her. 

Outside of Moore’s performance, the rest of the film is still pretty good.  My favorite aspect of the film is that the writers and directors, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, decided not to force a conflict.  

They could have added in something about how the husband (Alec Baldwin) decides to divorce Alice or some nonsense like that.  But, no, the husband is supportive and sticks with Alice through thick and thin.  It’s really nice to see a spouse, especially a husband, portrayed as supportive and loving.  The other performances in the film are also fairly good.  Yes, I’m even talking about Kristen Stewart. 

The only negative aspect of the movie I can think of is that one of the daughters, portrayed by Kate Bosworth, is rather unlikable.  I get where her frustration is coming from in some scenes but some of her spiteful behavior to her other sister (Stewart) just comes off as mean-spirited and unnecessary. 

It’s a very good film to check out, not just for Julianne Moore’s performance.  Just have some tissues on hand.