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"AWAY FROM HER" (PG-13)
"Away from Her" is one
of the best films of 2007's first half
By Tom Houseman
A young actress might seem like an odd
choice to adapt and direct a film about an elderly couple dealing with
the effects of Alzheimer's on their marriage. None the less, for her
directorial debut, Sarah Polley, the twenty-eight year-old star of Go
and Dawn of the Dead chose Alice Munro's short story “The Bear Came Over
the Mountain” as her source material. Away from Her certainly deserves
credit for ambition, but that is where most of the credit should end.
Polley's inexperience as a writer and director of feature films is
painfully apparent throughout; the film completely lacks subtlety and is
endlessly repetitive. Several scenes were unnecessary in terms of
driving the plot, creating tone, or revealing character, and only served
to distract the viewer's attention. Away from Her fails to capitalize on
the mountain of potential inherent in the story, and is only kept from
being a complete disaster by the performances of the two lead actors.
Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona (Julie Christie) have been married for
forty-four years when Fiona starts exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer's
disease. At first Grant is in denial, and then he tries to convince
himself that he and Fiona can handle her problems. Eventually, Fiona
forces Grant to face reality, and compels her to put him in a nursing
home for Alzheimer's patients. The effects of Fiona's illness ravage her
brain to the point where she does not recognize Grant. Grant watches in
pain as Fiona falls in love with another patient, which he interprets as
a response to decades-old issues in their marriage.
It is incredibly disappointing watching the touching story of Grant and
Fiona wasted in the inexperienced hands of Sarah Polley. It is difficult
to adapt a short story into a feature film, because it is necessary to
broaden the scope of the story for it to stretch from a few pages into
Away from Her's 110 minutes, but Polley seemingly refused to expand on
the story sufficiently. The result is numerous repetitive scenes of
Fiona not recognizing Grant and Grant being heartbroken. Julie Christie
and Gordon Pinsent delivering gut wrenching performances filled with
sadness, but they are not enough to rescue Away from Her. Polley tries
to break the repetition by inserting excerpts from a conversation
between Grant and Aubrey's wife, Marian (Olympia Dukakis in a thankless,
one-dimensional role), but these snippets are so randomly placed that
they only highlight the monotony of the film.
Polley's writing and direction lack the subtlety that a film as quiet
and complex as Away from Her is. There are several shots, including one
with Grant and Fiona lying in bed facing away from each other, that
scream to the audience the obvious fact that Fiona's Alzheimer's has
caused a barrier to grow between them. Numerous shots of various
characters walking down a hallway as melodramatic music plays certainly
doesn't help the subtlety problems. In addition, the character of
Kristy, a nurse (played well by Kristen Thompson) seems to exist only to
tell Grant exactly what he needs to be told, that just because Fiona
does not remember doesn't mean that she doesn't/didn't love him. Most of
the characters in Away from Her seem only to be vessels for moving the
story forward, or to provide a few brief moments of comic relief.
Sarah Polley clearly has potential as a director, and there are moments
in Away from Her that are heartbreaking and powerful, but they are few
and far between, and unable to help the film overcome its mountain of
flaws. Hopefully, Polley will learn from her mistakes, and her next film
will see a substantial improvement over Away from Her. Had Polley waited
to take on a project as ambitious as this until she had had more
experience with features, Away from Her could have been an excellent,
but ambition, while an admirable quality, can also be a flaw if it is
not reinforced by preparedness, and in the case of this film, the flaw
of ambition was a fatal one.
***/**** |
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