2.13.2008

what i'm watching: away from her

It's now a race between Zip and Baseball Season, and I fear baseball will win. I don't think I'll finish my Most Wanted Movies list before baseball begins. But on the bright side, we did see many of them, and many were very good.

Last night we finally saw "Away From Her". It's a beautiful movie, excruciatingly sad, beautifully written and masterfully acted throughout. It's also thoroughly Canadian, and I am extremely impressed at Sarah Polley's multiple talents. Before this, I knew her work as an actor, mostly from "The Sweet Hereafter" and "My Life Without Me". (I know fans of "Slings and Arrows" know Polley, too, but I haven't followed that show.) Polley wrote and directed "Away From Her," and she deserves any and all accolades she receives.

If you haven't seen the movie, it deals with a older couple, very much in love, when one of them develops Alzheimer's disease. My own grandmother had Alzheimer's for 10 years before her death, and her mother might have had, as well. (We thought of her as senile at the time.) Although these diagnoses were not confirmed after death, most (though not all) people in my family believe it was Alzheimer's. My mother lives in fear of it, and in some respect, so do my siblings and I, as we watch for signs of how our mother is doing.

This movie is heartbreaking, but it's not bleak or depressing. It's about loss, but it's also about love, and hope, and what true love and commitment can give us, and what we can give each other.

My guess is most people reading this post have already seen this movie, but you haven't, I hope you will.

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