Still Alice is about a fifty year old woman who finds out that she has early-onset Alzheimer's disease and her experiences dealing with it. To begin, the acting was fantastic. Julianne Moore excelled at performing the subtle nuances in the degeneration of both her mind and body in small and incremental steps. It was one of those performances that made me forget I was watching an actor at times. For those of you who are nervous about Kristen Stewart's performance, she was fine; not great, but acceptable. Like every movie she is in she just acts emotionally distant but it works for the character she plays here. Each member of Alice's family was introduced tremendously well in a dinner scene were the personalities of all of them were expressed almost immediately without feeling forced or awkward. The story is very well told, with best part of the storytelling being in the cinematography. This movie says a lot without actually speaking. When Alice is walking around and begins to forget where she is, the background will begin to lose focus and blur, losing the audience as well. There are several techniques similar to that that really brings the audience into Alice's shoes. The plot is very similar to The Theory of Everything. The protagonist gets a disease and has to drastically change their life in order to compensate as their relationships and way of life deteriorates. Before I put more emphasis on my opinions of the plot, I want to put some stress what kind of a movie this is. This movie is an experience, and not really a story. It excels at everything in terms of sharing the experience of developing this disease with the audience, but the story elements just sort of sit on top of that. If you saw Gravity, you might know what I am talking about. The movie focuses on the experience that the main character is going through instead of the story involving the character. Do not think that this is a negative; it is just a different type of movie. There are several small arcs that appear as the film progresses, but most are not really stressed enough or carry enough weight for me to be invested by the end. There is also a weird shift in focus about half way through the film which made it feel like two different movies. The first half is all about Alice's mental decline and her struggle with that. The second half focuses on the family and their struggle. While both halves are well told the shift in focus made then ending feel anticlimactic and unsatisfying. In order to remain spoiler-free, all I will say about the ending is that it didn't get to me as much as I think it wanted to. It tried to make me feel good about something that was not developed enough for me to care. In the end, I definitely recommend seeing this movie.
Review of Still Alice
