Away From Her

Screening: Monday 2 March 2009

Canada 2006.
Director: Sarah Polley.
Starring: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis.
Certificate: 12A. 110 minutes.

Synopsis

The film begins with Grant (Gordon Pinsent) reflecting on a loving marriage of 44 years. As he recalls his happy marriage with Fiona (Julie Christie) we get ‘interruptions’ that gradually lengthen revealing the beginnings of illness - the film shifts between time periods for a little while, before settling into the present. Gradually we learn that Fiona has Alzheimer’s and is now resident in a nursing home, and we are shown a situation has developed since she moved into the nursing home and the husband’s selfless way of dealing with this.

This is a gently paced film, set entirely in winter. There are beautifully filmed scenes of the home Grant and Fiona live in near a lake, and we see the enjoyment they get from the natural world they occupy. We are shown a gentle, loving relationship which is put under strain when Fiona is diagnosed and the couple react with differing emotions.

Although quite a gentle depiction of this awful illness, the reality of their future life is driven home when Grant is showed around the nursing home - Meadow Lake - to which his wife will be admitted. We clearly see the turmoil in Grant having to accept this, and share his emotions as he sits on a sofa watching the residents and their families enjoy a Christmas meal. Sarah Polley conveys the depth of his feeling with quiet skill, all emotion coming from the camera focused on a lively dining room slowly empty until we are just left with the residents isolated at their tables once busy with chatter.

Grant is against Fiona moving into this home, cannot see why she feels she must go there, and he is further against the move when he learns the conditions tied to her admittance; however, Fiona persuades him it has to be. He finds it very hard to accept this break from her and his worst fears are realised when he visits a month later to find she no longer knows who he is.

Julie Christie has rightly received high praise for her performance in this film, but Gordon Pinsent deserves equal praise as his quiet performance perfectly conveys a life turned upside down and the pain that comes from watching the change in his beloved wife.