Away From Her

Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent

Sarah Polley's Away From Her, adapted by Polley from the Alice Munro short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain, received almost universal praise upon its release. Despite this, I dragged my heels in seeing it. Perhaps the film's story, in which a long term married couple deals with the ravages of Alzheimer's disease, hit a little too close to me as I face my own dotage. Regardless, I finally took the plunge and was confronted by a thoughtful film with a number of tremendous performances. Julie Christie was rightly hailed for her wonderful performance as a woman bravely facing her own mental decomposition. However, the entire cast is first rate, including Gordon Pinsent as her husband and also Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Wendy Crewson, and Kristen Thomson.

There is a Canadian reserve to her work that has always kept me from totally embracing Polley's directorial efforts. However, restraint and reserve are perhaps exactly the qualities needed to tackle a wrenching topic like this. The devasting tracking shot of Pinsent first visiting the nursing care facility, with Wendy Crewson expertly mouthing a canned introductory spiel, is a model of directorial control. This is mostly an actor's film in which the strength of the material frees the director from displaying a heavy hand. The touches Polley does indulge in, though, like a circle dolly to emphasize a remembrance of a shared past or slow dollies in and out to heighten the impact of a character's emotions, yield fruit. Certainly, Away From Her is one of the more memorable films released in 2007.