Still Alice (2014)

So sad, this story of a 50-year-old woman and her family coping with her early-onset Alzheimer's proves that money can't buy happiness nor health. I liked it a lot, but Jack decided not go, as it's difficult to contemplate such a grim future. Julianne Moore (last blogged in Don Jon) earned her Best Actress Oscar with a many-layered performance as the woman whose intellect completely defines her and Alec Baldwin (most recently in these pages for Blue Jasmine) is also very good as her stalwart yet pragmatic husband. Kate Bosworth (mentioned only in passing in Another Happy Day) has often irked me with her anorexic frame and teeny-bopper roles, but here, as Alice's elder daughter, she's gaining some maturity in her acting. Hunter Parrish (best known to most as Silas Botwin on Weeds, he also played Baldwin's son in It's Complicated) doesn't have a lot to do as the middle child but he's always pleasant and easy on the eyes. Kristen Stewart (last in On the Road) has plenty to do as the youngest sibling.

Directed and the screenplay adapted by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (I meant to see their Quinceañera (2006)) with confidence and style, despite Glatzer's ALS, necessitating his performing his directorial duties with a text-to-speech app on an iPad. Wow. Still Alice, self-published in 2007, was Lisa Genova's first novel, and was acquired by Simon & Schuster two years later, spending 40 weeks on the New York Times best seller list. Different wow, but wow, nonetheless.

The music is also quite beautiful, composed by Ilan Eshkeri (credited with, among others, projects as disparate as Kick-Ass and Young Victoria). You can hear clips interspersed with his talking about the score on this link, the main theme on this one, and sample his entire soundtrack on that one.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 91% and audiences 86, with the Oscar helping the bottom line (ninth last weekend after seven weeks in release). I made up for watching it alone by following it with Episodes on Showtime, one of my favorite comedy series of the moment. Make sure you have something fun or funny to do after seeing this fine piece.

UPDATE: Glatzer died March 19, 2015. He was Westmoreland's husband. Here's a spoiler-free story of how his ALS corresponds with the movie's Alzheimer's. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-richard-glatzer-dies-wash-westmoreland-still-alice-20150312-story.html#page=1