ARTS & CULTURE
Monday, March 23, 2015 23
Film reviews
» continued from page 17
better movie than it ought to be, but not good enough
to escape its pulpy, mendacious roots. Co-writer and
co-director Richard Glatzer has cited Yasujirō Ozu
as an influence, and Still Alice honours the Japanese
master’s serenity unto nothingness, but pales in comparison to the miraculous purity and magnanimity of
Tokyo Story.
In terms of character development, Still Alice lacks
the thickness that made us sympathize and grieve
with Julie Christie’s Fiona Anderson in Away from
Her and Emmanuelle Riva’s Anne Laurent in Amour.
Writer-directors Sarah Polley and Michael Haneke
know the worst, and consider it their duty to show it;
Glatzer and co-director Wash Westmoreland flinch
and recoil at every opportunity the worst threatens
to reveal itself. The audience gets close enough to feel
the pain without reliving the depths of the horror. It’s
Alzheimer’s made digestible, and that’s borderline
disrespectful, if more accessible.
I wish Still Alice had the courage not to shy away
from the uncomfortable, to shine a light into the abyss,
knowing full well that down is sometimes the only
way out. Instead, it merely provides a valuable lesson
in empathy and understanding, a message of accepting what is lost, and celebrating what is not yet gone.
Is Still Alice the tearjerker of the year? No, that
dubious title would likely go to Two Days, One Night