I've always found myself disagreeing with those mainstream hollywood-exclusive awards. But in this case I do find my own opinions aligning with the oscar and the globe, and many others. Julianne Moore delivered yet another fantastic performance but the whole film is quite plain and not matching up to that level.
It was quite emotional, I know I teared up for a couple of times and the girl who sat next to me was weeping at the end of the credit roll. But a good film requires more than the ability to make your eyes water. The film focuses very much on Moore's character and how she struggles through losing her memories bit by bit. However, the very 'catchphrase', emphasised in the trailer and also in the movie, 'struggling to be a part of things'. A part of what things? As the camera focuses primarily on Moore I had pretty much no idea what other characters were doing. Yes we did see that her eldest daughter got a twin, which took up about, 1 min of the entire film? And then what else? We know that her husband, played by Alex Baldwin, was planning to move but it also lacks much in-depth look into the conflict of interest of these two characters at the end of the event especially. And Kristen Stewart's character, how about her career and everything?
By the end of the film I couldn't help but feel that the heroine was only a part of her own struggling, which by itself is fine but somehow due to the skew balance amongst the characters her family members just appear to be very, very flat.
It sort of reminded me of a Japanese film that came out last year called 'Our Family', starring my fav Satoshi Tsumabuki. Both centred on the mum of the family who's gradually losing her memories, only different causes but still very similar symtoms at the beginning. The difference is that 'Our Family' did indeed emphasised the 'family' concept and paid a large amount of screen time on other fam member's actions. How they react, how their lives are affected and how they struggle to overcome. At the end you get a much more heartfelt movie that really explores the true impact of such illness.
Of course 'Our Family' is probably going too far away from what the director of 'Still Alice' wanted to achieve as they obviously have different centres and purposes and thus they can't be directly compared against each other. But in my personal humble opinion, 'Still Alice' sacrificed itself to maximise the halo around Julianne Moore's already impeccable performance.
Last thing I would like to add is that I did find some of the cinematography quite appropriate and helped to amplify the protagonist's emotional shifts throughout the film.
Overall rating: 6.5/10
Still Alice will be officially released in Australia this Thursday 29 Jan.
Our Family (ぼくたちの家族) was shown during Japan Film Festival 2014.
