The Filmcake

Julie Christie & Gordon Pinsent – Capri Films – www.caprifilms.com

I was listening to something on NPR last week when I was surprised to hear the guest was in his early eighties. I was taken aback because as I’d been listening to this guest talk, I never once thought of him as an old man. He seemed so keen and vital. The same thing happened a couple months ago when I learned that NPR’s Daniel Schorr is 91 years old. Sure, I took him to be grandfatherly, but not a nonagenarian. Maybe it’s radio. Maybe a sturdy voice belies age to some degree.

But, I’ve often wondered why some people remain so vital into their old age, while others seem so feeble. Some seem to remain so engaged, while others seem to have mostly just given up. I wonder how I will end up in my old age. I wonder if I will–if I’m able to–stay engaged in politics and film and books into those later years. I wonder if I will still have wonderful discussions of these things with my wife when we’re both much older.

I wonder if the end result is in any way related to that kind of engagement. Perhaps some people have given up on intellectual and artistic fulfillment way before old age has caught up with them. Maybe it’s already lost for those people. Maybe if it’s something you keep working at–keep at those word games, keep up with social interactions–then it’s something you can hope to retain. But, maybe it’s all about chance. Maybe it’s the mysterious workings of the brain. Some people are lucky, and some aren’t.

Recently, there was an article in the New York Times about how older people who keep up high-intensity workouts can hold off some of the physical signs of decline that are common among the more sedentary. Perhaps, a similar high-intensity cerebral workout would stave off some of the mental signs of decline.

So, it was with that floating in my head that I viewed Sarah Polley’s Away From Her. Polley’s directorial debut examines how Alzheimer’s affects the way we perceive our own lives as well as the lives of the one’s we love. But, it’s also about how we sometimes only see what we want to see–a perception altered by our past and present. It’s the story of Fiona (Julie Christie) and Grant (Gordon Pinsent), who both must come to terms (in their own ways) with letting go of the way things used to be.

I should say, based on my earlier paragraphs, that I’m not in any way suggesting that Alzheimer’s disease results from some sort of laziness–from not remaining physically or mentally engaged. Its roots are much more complicated. It is precisely because Fiona and Grant are physically and mentally engaged, in life and with each other, that the loss feels all the more tragic. But as Marian, the wife of Fiona’s new-found friend Aubrey, says: “It’s just life. You can’t beat life.”

Wonderfully adapted by Polley from the Alice Munro short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” that first appeared in The New Yorker, the film tugs hard at the heart-strings without veering into movie-of-the-week, Oprah-endorsed melodrama. And a film about the effects of Alzheimer’s certainly risks broaching this sappy territory–forcing or at least nudging the viewer to elicit tears rather than allowing the viewer to connect in a genuine way with the characters. Luckily, Away From Her does not suffer from this deficit. Much of this credit surely goes to Polley. But, much also goes to Julie Christie. She is so strikingly beautiful for her age–so physically and mentally relevant and vital that the rougher turns are all the more heartbreakingly painful to watch. She’s already won a Golden Globe and a SAG for her portrayal, and I don’t see any reason why she won’t be taking home an Oscar as well.