Away from Her is a highly acclaimed Canadian movie directed by young actress/director Sarah Polley. The film deals with a couple apparently happily married for 44 years. After sharing a wonderful dinner together, Grant (Gordon Pinsent) washes the dishes and Fiona (Julie Christie) puts them away. Ever so simply, she dries a frying pan, puts it in the freezer and walks away. He can only watch politely with a look of sadness and despair. As her Alzheimer disease worsens, she decides to move into a retirement facility despite her husband’s increasingly desperate pleas especially after he learns that he has to stay away from her for 30 days so she can “settle in”. When he finally gets to visit her, he is crushed to see that his wife is spending all of her time with a mute resident, Aubrey (Michael Murphy) and largely ignores him. He wonders if this is punishment for his past infidelity but continues to show up day after day after day…

You could say this movie screams Hallmark or Lifetime channel… and this would really not do justice to it. Away from Her is an honest and nuanced look into the meaning of mature love, faithfulness, and letting the person you love go. The film is different because there is no cheap emotions or sentiments and everything is so carefully crafted, polished, and nuanced, almost to a fault. See, The Notebook was nowhere near a great movie but it was devastatingly effective behind strong performances and a direction which really hammered the essence of the movie into the audience. Away from Her is the complete opposite, letting the audience simmer the entire movie with no real hit-you-in-the-face heart-wrenching moment. The performance by the cast was brilliant but Julie Christie was simply magnificent as Fiona Anderson and was nominated for best actress at the Academy Awards. This is not to say Gordon Pinsent was not impressive as her husband. Not very well known here in the US, but a highly respected actor in Canada, we watch Fiona’s deterioration through his eyes: sadness, pain, jealousy, nostalgia, love. What would you do in his place, slowly losing the love of your life?

The movie was deeply moving, yet not sappy, but I can’t give it a top grade because I feel that it has a somewhat embellished and soft view of the disease. Maybe the movie should have been a little more painful: For example with Fiona completely forgetting who Grant was, or going into a blind rage or denial of her disease, or the nursing staff being a little less kind (let’s face it, that’s reality). Something to stir the audience… I acknowledge that it’s a tough balance because you don’t want cheap emotions but I really felt the movie was overly blunted, subdued, and almost… dull. (I said it) So here, that was my review of Away from Her…

Very good performances especially by Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, a little too much of an “art work” but finally, a real movie for grown-ups, something virtually nonexistent these days…