A wonderful life

Still Alice

Crit

Golly! And I thought The Babadook was terrifying.

I have been lucky not to have to watch anyone near to me sink ever deeper into dementia. I have been lucky, but who's to my loved ones will be as lucky?--and that prospect is way more terrifying that any existential evil a popup book can conjure.

You know how people start bolting the theater as soon as the end credits start? There were only a half-dozen of us, but no one budged until the MPAA logo went by--no one could budge, I think: just standing up was an effort, so roundhouse-punched we all felt. One could quibble about elements of the film, but with My Future Wife Julianne Moore at the center of it (and, for that matter, with Kristen Stewart, who, if you keep her away from vampires and lycanthropes, can really act, revolving around that center), it probably accomplishes as much in terms of Aristotelian catharsis as it would have with a subtler, better modulated script.

Does Julie finally get the statue she has long merited? Is there a better working actor who doesn't have one? I know: two very different questions, and anyway, I profess not to care about that stuff. But still.