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Alberta Watson, Gordon Pinsent, Julie Christie

Married for almost 50 years, Grant and Fiona's commitment to each other appears unwavering, and their everyday life is full of tenderness and humor. This serenity is broken only by the occasional, car...( read more  read more... )efully restrained reference to the past, giving a sense that this marriage may not always have been such a fairy tale. This tendency of Fiona's to make such references, along with her increasingly evident memory loss, creates a tension that is usually brushed off casually by both of them. But, when it is no longer possible for either of them to ignore the fact that Fiona is being consumed by Alzheimer's disease, the limits of their love and loyalty must be wrenchingly redefined.

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80% liked it

108,578 ratings

Critics

94% liked it

137 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: Sarah Polley

Release Date: January 20, 2007

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DVD Release Date: September 11, 2007

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Stats: 4,563 reviews

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Away from Her(Loin d'elle) (2007) JULIE CHRISTIE wendy crewson Away from Her (Loin d'elle) (2007) Sarah Polley for Away from Her(Loin d'elle) (2007) Scene from Away from Her(Loin d'elle) (2007) Away from Her(Loin d'elle) (2007) Olympia Dukakis as Marian in Away from Her(Loin d'elle) (2007) Away from Her Away from Her Away from Her Away from Her Away from Her Away from Her
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Flixster Reviews (4,563)

  • Redlats
    June 9, 2009
    Redlats
    I have put off seeing this movie. I find movies about Alzheimer's scary since my mother went through it before she passed on. But scary or not, you should see "Away from her". It is wonderfully played and wonderfully directed. Sarah Polley just shows you what Alzheimer's can do.
  • SilentWarProductions2009
    January 20, 2009
    SilentWarProductions2009
    Directed by: Sarah Polley.
    Starring: Julie Christie, Olypmia Dukakis, Gordon Pinsent.

    <<"I'd like to make love, and then I'd like you to go. Because I need to stay here and if you make it hard for me, I may cry so hard I'll never stop.">>

    The ...( read more)story introduces us to elderly married couple Fiona and Grant, of 44 years, who are still very much in love since they day they got married. Fiona has Alzheimer's and is slowly deteriorating away at such a young age, it has come to the point that they must send her to a nursing home. There, she is left for 30 days to adjust away from Grant (or as such, the other way around) and when he goes to visit, he must deal with the pain of what she has come to and the strange affection Fiona has built with another male patient.

    No words of mine can describe the sheer beauty and brilliance of this film, a film deserving of Oscars, that I hope this time next year, the film will be recognized by a wider audience.

    The strongest element of this film is most certainly Sarah Polley, a young actress of 28 years old doing her first directional/writing feature debut and she is wise beyond her years. She has created a poetic masterpiece that is so pure and so well developed, the dialogue is amazingly strong and thoughtful, she injects such humanity and heart into every element of this picture that she seems to finally be a light in dark Hollywood.

    Julie Christie has only ever been a name to me, being the age that I am, I don't think I have had the pleasure of seeing her films to see why her name is praised so much...now I can see why. She delivers one of the most heartwarming, heartbreaking, powerfully poetic performances in many years, she shows such great range and her experience shines through on screen, if she doesn't win the Oscar next year, then it will be a disgrace.

    The supporting cast is also very strong, from the humorous ex-sports caster and cheeky elderly woman, to the simple roles of silence from the patients, but the standout is Gordon Pinset. Another actor I wish I had seen along time ago. He has a very tricky role that requires a lot of depth,control and most of all, believability...and he hits it right on the head. Its all in his eyes and his face, he shows wisdom in his years, his face appears very detailed to show a hard life, his eyes have so much love and loss in them, that he steals every scene he is in.

    Unforgettable, poetic, deep, moving, thoughtful, heartwarming, heartbreaking...no words of mine can do this film any justice, it needs to be seen and loved. A masterpiece.

    90/100

    << "I think all we can aspire to in this situation is a little bit of grace. " >>
  • AgentLexi2132
    September 24, 2008
    AgentLexi2132
    ''I never wanted to be away from her.''

    A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, Aubrey, a wheel chair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.

    <...( read more)b>Gordon Pinsent: Grant Anderson

    Away From Her was slow moving, a snail's crawl if you will, and just a tad confusing via the chronological sequence and no instruction on how to follow, plus the fact it goes on far longer than is required.
    That being said there is some powerful performances on display and honestly made Away From Her an experience for me.

    ''I think all we can aspire to in this situation is a little bit of grace.''

    I was rather disturbed by the fact that audiences could be moved or romanticized by AFH, which features a couple who supposedly are meant to be madly in love, married for forty years but the husband has had an affair, and then moves on to sleep with another woman which is fine because his wife has Alzheimer's and has taken to another man of her own. There is nothing sweet or romantic about the film and in fact results in a more confusing and rather odd scenario. Rather than being about a man dealing with his wife's increasing Alzheimer's, it's about relationships between four strains of aging people thrown together because of the condition.

    ''It's never too late to become what you might have been.''

    Some of the photography of AFH does single out the director's relative inexperience behind said camera, which is more than replaced by the slow pace, mood and uncommon sincerity of the film. Polley may be learning how to capture the essence of a story, she's definitely has a viewpoint and stance on how to tell one, as witnessed by the aforementioned chronological mix-up narrative drive accompanied by a somber and minimized score that maintains the level of emotion until the end credits.
    One hopes the young lady will stay behind cameras alot longer, if only to challenge other filmmakers to follow her example.
    Having said that, this isn't the kind of film one would expect an emerging young director to create ? particularly since it has aspirations of being a Bergman-esque chamber drama which, while fairly compelling and austere, clearly lacks the necessary depth which a master craftsman would otherwise bring to such material.

    ''I'd like to make love, and then I'd like you to go. Because I need to stay here and if you make it hard for me, I may cry so hard I'll never stop.''

    In conclusion, Away From Her aims at expected peaks and goals and mostly ticks them off the list, but remember, this isn't a film about surprises and stultifying plot twists like memory twister Memento for example.
    It is a sympathetic, affecting, uncompromising look at Alzheimer's effect on it's victim and surrounding people that know her, like family, husband etc.
    So slow pace, grand performances and for Sarah Polley's screen writing and directing debut, it's a very impressive start.

    ''I never wanted to be away from her. She had the spark of life.''
  • habitualdamnation
    September 14, 2008
    habitualdamnation
    How sensitive, subtle and morbidly depressin. Sarah Polley stuff, alright. Yeah shoot me now.
  • hobster1
    June 24, 2008
    hobster1
    Overrated TV style movie about husband's inability to make peace with his wife's Alzheimer's disease. Difficult to care about a character who has no emotion for the husband that loves her.
  • romy861
    November 18, 2009
    romy861
    I struggled getting into this one, just because it is such a horrible subject (altzheimers disease). Obviously this was never going to be a laugh a minute. However, the acting by both Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent is so well done that it somehow doesn't wind up totally depr...( read more)essing, even though it probably should be. A bit different to what you normally see in the movies. Recommended.
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 23, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    I couldnt sit through the whole movie
  • 76Majikat
    September 11, 2009
    76Majikat
    Recommended by Carol &KJ & Moe & Brian W & Alexander
  • gwynfallan
    August 27, 2009
    gwynfallan
    A beautiful, heart wrenching/heart warming, and well acted, but slow moving, drama that never quite grabbed me as I watched it. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys experiencing phenomenal performances by great actors. Even if you don't find dramas to be your cup of tea,...( read more) the performances in this are worth it.
  • SageSlowdive
    August 27, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Wonderful and excellent drama.

View All Away from Her Reviews

Critic Reviews

May 11, 2007
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

Sarah Polley's sad, wise and simply dazzling directorial effort beams with warmth. full review

May 10, 2007
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

A wise and tender Alzheimer's drama. full review

May 5, 2007
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

For a story with only one possible outcome, [i]Away From Her[/i] is full of twists and turns. full review

May 4, 2007
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

A feature film that's often astringent on the surface, yet deeply and memorably stirring. full review

May 4, 2007
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Does the finest job of any film in painting a believable portrait of aging, capturing the sadness, confusion, anxiety and defiance of the early stages of dementia. full review

May 4, 2007
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

In a refreshingly direct, unassuming manner, Away From Her considers two great human mysteries: the persistence of love and the workings of the brain.

April 30, 2007
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

A twilight-of-life love story, one that harshly demolishes our romantic notions of love and loyalty, then replaces them with something deeper and, finally, more consoling. full review

April 26, 2007
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

A straightforward but engrossing drama about what love is worth when memory is gone. full review

April 19, 2007
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Christie, a Sixties screen goddess in Darling and Doctor Zhivago, shows that her spirit and grace are eternal. She's a beauty. So is the movie. full review

View more Away from Her reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • perfectgentlemn
    July 20, 2008
    perfectgentlemn
    What an excellent movie. I'll put more thought into this comment later..lol Just an excellent & well written movie. ;-)
  • arlica31
    October 30, 2007
    arlica31
    is there any way that this movie can be posted to this site so others who are interested in seeing it can do so?
  • dewieda
    May 7, 2007
    dewieda
    the review reminds me of Notebook, my favorite movie!!!!
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  • What movie had these quotes "I may be synthetic but im not stupid" and "Get away from her you B****!"   Answer »
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