180707961
If one believes the party line, then he or she is as confident as anyone that frequent Oscar snubbee Julianne Moore will finally take home her first trophy for her leading role in “Still Alice.” The project and the performance are the stuff the Academy salivates over. Moore plays the title character, a brilliant linguist and neurologist who teaches at Columbia, and shockingly develops early-onset Alzheimer’s at 50. Alice’s mental state deteriorates fast, and Moore uses all the acting tools in her arsenal to project her character’s tricky mix of wit and degradation.
Some have derided “Still Alice” as a movie-of-the-week weepie, and it is true this will hardly go down as one of Moore’s strongest flicks. The film moves at a palpably telegraphed place, and a subplot involving a potential suicide plan falls flat in a way that’s insulting to viewer intelligence, not to mention that of the character and the mentally ill at large. And Moore, for all her characteristically masterful craftsmanship, doesn’t so much deliver the female performance of the year as add a notch to her prestige-studded belt.
But “Still Alice” plainly addresses some unexpected horrors (namely, such a patient’s probability of passing the disease on to her children), and allows certain characters, like Alice’s husband, played by Alec Baldwin, to retain their self-serving flaws to the bitter end. The enterprise is far less compromising than something one would see on Lifetime, and while Alice’s childhood flashbacks are an irksome way to illustrate faded memories, the tragic vividness with which she faces down her fate has streaks of tough revelation.
Also co-starring with Moore are Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, and an especially effective Kristen Stewart, all of whom play Alice’s children, who may or may not inherit her condition. Some of the film’s most graceful moments involve these actors’ approaches to achieving understanding in regard to their changing mom, which is easier said than done, especially when one’s own life hangs in the balance. There is a certain affliction template that “Still Alice” follows, but largely, thanks to Moore and company, it overcomes its ailments.
Still Alice
PG-13
Two-and-a-half reels out of four
Opens tomorrow at the Ritz Five
Recommended Rental
The Drop
R
Available Tuesday
Tom Hardy and Matthias Schoenaerts go head to head in this surprisingly gripping crime drama from the director of Schoenaerts’s breakout vehicle, “Bullhead.” Both actors are gripping as opponents embroiled in a war over a woman (Noomi Rapace), a dog and a sketchy neighborhood history. James Gandolfini costars in his final screen role.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
180707961
180707841
