Saw 'Still Alice' to see how Julianne Moore's universally praised performance would fare and also to see how the film would do portraying an illness as cruel as Alzheimers. Having seen myself what it does to people from singing Christmas carols recently at a care home, and having had a family friend who succumbed to it a few years ago.
Finally getting round to see it, there was a good deal to admire about 'Still Alice', and there is more to it than an award-sweeping performance. On the other hand, a large part of me expected something much more, it is a brave attempt but doesn't explore the illness and how it affects loved ones as well as the sufferer enough. Which is a really big shame because the potential and ingredients are all there, the execution was inconsistent.
Can say absolutely nothing wrong about Julianne Moore, whose magnificent performance, one of heart-wrenching subtlety and dignity delivered with incredible intelligence, is what especially elevates 'Still Alice' to a higher level. As to whether she deserved the Oscar, my answer is yes for one of the overall best performances that year and she is tied with Rosamund Pike in 'Gone Girl' as my win for the Best Actress category that year.
It is not just Moore who gives a quality performance. Alec Baldwin is just as powerful and Kristen Stewart proves that she is capable of a good (great even) performance when she has a character and material that are halfway decent (not the case with the 'Twilight' films and 'Snow White and the Huntsman', but the case here).
The film looks good visually, while the music is hauntingly beautiful and there is an honesty and poignancy to the writing, effectively chilling early premonitions and some interesting, illuminating facts.
However, most of the characters are cardboard cut-outs, particularly those of the children. Of Stewart, Hunter Parrish and Kate Bosworth's characters, the only one to have any kind of meat is Stewart's. Can barely remember those for the other two, especially Bosworth's who is also rather shallow.
Too much of the script is under-baked, too coy and lacks subtlety, some of it almost like a sermon. There is not much new to what is already known about Alzheimers and how it's portrayed in other films to much better and more consistent effect.
Much more could have been done with the too bland and trivialised portrayal of Alzheimers (even though there is emotional impact), we know already how cruel it is but we don't properly get to see how devastating the illness is. Largely because the family relationships and how it affects them, as well as the full effects of the illness itself (far more complex and devastating than the film shows), are under-explored. When there are attempts at these, they do vary in how much they ring true or whether they're contrived). And the daily struggles glossed over completely, it's not just the sufferer who suffers and the carers deserve better than that.
Overall, decent and worth watching but should have been much more. 6/10 Bethany Cox
Finally getting round to see it, there was a good deal to admire about 'Still Alice', and there is more to it than an award-sweeping performance. On the other hand, a large part of me expected something much more, it is a brave attempt but doesn't explore the illness and how it affects loved ones as well as the sufferer enough. Which is a really big shame because the potential and ingredients are all there, the execution was inconsistent.
Can say absolutely nothing wrong about Julianne Moore, whose magnificent performance, one of heart-wrenching subtlety and dignity delivered with incredible intelligence, is what especially elevates 'Still Alice' to a higher level. As to whether she deserved the Oscar, my answer is yes for one of the overall best performances that year and she is tied with Rosamund Pike in 'Gone Girl' as my win for the Best Actress category that year.
It is not just Moore who gives a quality performance. Alec Baldwin is just as powerful and Kristen Stewart proves that she is capable of a good (great even) performance when she has a character and material that are halfway decent (not the case with the 'Twilight' films and 'Snow White and the Huntsman', but the case here).
The film looks good visually, while the music is hauntingly beautiful and there is an honesty and poignancy to the writing, effectively chilling early premonitions and some interesting, illuminating facts.
However, most of the characters are cardboard cut-outs, particularly those of the children. Of Stewart, Hunter Parrish and Kate Bosworth's characters, the only one to have any kind of meat is Stewart's. Can barely remember those for the other two, especially Bosworth's who is also rather shallow.
Too much of the script is under-baked, too coy and lacks subtlety, some of it almost like a sermon. There is not much new to what is already known about Alzheimers and how it's portrayed in other films to much better and more consistent effect.
Much more could have been done with the too bland and trivialised portrayal of Alzheimers (even though there is emotional impact), we know already how cruel it is but we don't properly get to see how devastating the illness is. Largely because the family relationships and how it affects them, as well as the full effects of the illness itself (far more complex and devastating than the film shows), are under-explored. When there are attempts at these, they do vary in how much they ring true or whether they're contrived). And the daily struggles glossed over completely, it's not just the sufferer who suffers and the carers deserve better than that.
Overall, decent and worth watching but should have been much more. 6/10 Bethany Cox