Gordon Pinsent delivers an amazingly textured performance, backed up by refreshing ensemble work with Olympia Dukakis and relative newcomer Kristen Thomson.
Away From Her is a quiet little gem of a film. Written and directed by Sarah Polley, based on Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” it’s a tender, naked look at a man who must come to terms with his wife’s rapidly advancing Alzheimer’s.
Not big enough to duke it out with juggernauts like No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood, this film was still able to slide under the radar and pick up Oscar nominations for Best Actress (Julie Christie) and Best Screenplay Adaptation (Polley).
"A Little Bit of Grace" and "The Spark of Life"
Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Christie) have been married for 44 years. She proposed to him on a lark; he accepted. “I took her up on it,” he says. “I never wanted to be away from her. She had the spark of life.” Now, with her acute Alzheimer’s getting worse, he can no longer care for her.
The tough decision is made both easier, and more difficult, by Fiona’s resolve. She reads aloud from a book that bluntly describes what awaits them should she stay at home: “The caregiver must preside over the degeneration of someone he or she loves very much, must do this for years and years with the situation always getting worse, not better.” Like a normal marriage, she quips.
Fiona needs to save herself and her husband the brutal indignities that would make a mockery of what they have. But there is a catch: the policy at the residence where she’ll be staying allows no visitors – not even close relatives – for the first 30 days, to give the new residents time to adjust.
Grant does not want her to go. They have not been apart for 24 hours in all this time. Fiona, practical, realizes they cannot hope for much happiness now, but only “a little bit of grace.” And, after all, she says, “Thirty days isn’t such a long time after 44 years.”
It proves an eternity. Especially when her memory lapses are sometimes measured in hours, if not minutes. When Grant next arrives, Fiona not only does not recognize him, she has struck up an affectionate friendship with a fellow resident named Aubrey.
Sarah Polley’s Confident Touch
This set up could fall like lead in the hands of a less attuned writer or director. It may help that Sarah Polley held the reins of both horses in this film. It is reminiscent of The Notebook (directed by Nick Cassavetes, from Jan Sardi’s adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ novel). But while The Notebook is a deftly-handled tender romance, Away From Her is so much more.
As Grant says in a scene cut from the film (but included with the extras on the DVD), “Life is complicated.” Polley’s choice to cut the scene was on the money: This is one of the themes the film gets across so eloquently without ever having to come out and say it.
There are remarkable performances from Christie and Pinsent. But Olympia Dukakis as Aubrey’s wife, and Kristen Thomson as Kristy, one of the nurses, round out the complexity of the tableau nicely.
This is a film that must be watched. It does not have the perk and verve of a comedic-drama like The Savages to buoy the viewer along. Rather, it’s more like watching a sunset cascade across a beautiful painting, changing hues with each passing moment. But the moments … ah, the moments it evokes, are golden.
- Grade: A
- Rating: PG-13
- Running Time: 110 min.
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