Glasgow Film Festival 2015: Still Alice

Still Alice deviates from most dramas concerned with Alzheimer’s in adopting the point of view of the sufferer, rather than devastated loved ones. Julianne Moore plays Alice, a 50-year-old linguistics professor diagnosed with inheritable early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Big fans of Moore’s brand of damaged women might find traces of her career cornerstones – the likes of Safe – in Still Alice. It’s a mesmerising performance, quietly devastating rather than showy. At times her work’s subtleties feel like a rebellion against the potentially cheesy directions taken by the screenplay, such as one speech to the Alzheimer’s Association which could so easily feel like awards showreel-bait in the hands of a less assertive performer.

Indeed, it’s the surrounding filmmaking that lets Still Alice down somewhat. Some script issues aside, its directors never really apply a distinctive visual scheme to convey Alice’s increasing incapacity, with the aesthetic often akin to how a Channel 5 TV movie version might play. Moore allows it to still remain moving, but it never becomes a great film about illness.

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The Skinny at Glasgow Film Festival 2015:

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