Still Alice is, without a doubt, a very moving film, but what’s nice about it is its ability to deliver a story without relying on histrionics. It hits all the emotional beats we expect it to hit, but it also does so with more care than we might expect. Now, the movie certainly does have an intrusive score, a hastily put together world, and several underwritten supporting characters; at the same time, though, it can be a great movie when it focuses on its central character: Alice Howland, a 50-year old Linguistics professor at Columbia University who develops early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

The movie wouldn’t nearly be as affecting without Julianne Moore’s performance, of course. Early on, we can clearly see that she’s an intelligent and resourceful woman, but as the disease progresses, we begin to see Alice’s face become emptier and emptier. Moore is able to communicate the panic and frustration that results whenever Alice realizes that another step in her mental deterioration has occurred, and the fact that she clearly understands what’s happening to her makes it all the more heartbreaking.

Although supporting characters played by Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth, etc. have their moments, the movie tends to return to the relationship between Alice and Kristen Stewart’s Lydia, a Broadway actress who is constantly hounded by her mother about college. On that note, there are some interesting ideas explored here when Alice tries to use her disease to nudge Lydia toward college, and there are also some poignant scenes involving the two of them that rank among the best of the movie. This is a movie that touches on anything from Alice’s loved ones to society’s view of those with the disease, but it’s mainly one–and a fairly good one–about Alice’s reactions to the crumbling of her inner world.

GRADE: B

OTHER THOUGHTS:

-Kristen Stewart is good in this movie, but during a certain play scene in which her character is attempting to act, the key word there is “attempting”.

-Can The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel please come out already? If I have to sit through that trailer again, I’m going to break something.

-I still prefer Rosamund Pike’s performance in Gone Girl and Marion Cotillard in The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night, but Moore is close behind this year in terms of Lead Actress performances. Adams and Witherspoon are right behind Moore.

-Alzheimer’s is an incredibly scary disease. Thankfully, no one close to me has it, but I’ve known some people whose loved ones were affected by it.

SPOILER SPACE

-I’m happy the movie didn’t end right after the speech, as I was expecting it to. It’s a great scene for Moore, but I like the actual ending better. No need for the whole “childhood memories” business, though; I’ve seen it too often.

Photo credits: Still Alice, Sony Pictures Classics, Killer films