Director: Richard Glatzer,Wash Westmoreland

Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, Kristen Stewart, Hunter Parish, Voctoria Cartagena, Erin Darke

Rating: 12A

Running Time: 100mins

Release Date: March 6th, 2015

STILL ALICE is the now Oscar-winning film, which follows a lecturer who is diagnosed with early on-set Alzheimer’s disease at 50. As the family attempts to deal with this, we see Alice’s condition slowly develop.

The film is tragic, sad, and at a lot of points, quite heartbreaking. One of STILL ALICE’s strongest points is the characters within it; the family members all have their own flaws, but each appear genuine. Alec Baldwin was a surprising strong point in this film as the devoted, but struggling husband. 

Of course, Julianne Moore’s performance totally deserves the Oscar recognition; playing a character with any sort of illness is always a challenge, but she was extremely subtle in her portrayal of this.

Another strong point in STILL ALICE is its portrayal of the way in which people deal with family members suffering from Alzheimer’s. It was particularly effective in discussing the real-life social stigma attached to the disease.

The film also flowed very well. It is simply about the tragic progression of Alice’s condition so there are no major plot points other than those relating to the next step of her illness. This can very easily make a film boring and too depressing. However, STILL ALICE managed to show how ordinary families cope with these issues in a realistic fashion.

Overall, STILL ALICE is a very well made and well-performed film, which covers sensitive issues in an appropriately sensitive way.

Verdict

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