Showtimes & Tickets Enter Zip Code:

AWAY FROM HER
Written & Directed by: Sarah Polley, based on the short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” by Alice Munro.
Produced by: Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl & Jennifer Weiss.
Director of Photography: Luc Montpellier.
Edited by: David Wharnsby.
Music by: Jonathan Goldsmith.
Released by: Lionsgate.
Country of Origin: Canada. 110 Min. Rated PG-13.
With: Julie Christie, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Kristen Thomson, Michael Murphy & Wendy Crewson.

According to a recent New York Times article, it takes a lot of effort to lure Julie Christie away from her home in Wales and back in front of the camera, but after much effort, writer/director Sarah Polley convinced her to play Fiona Andersson, a woman tragically descending into the oblivion of Alzheimer’s. This highly anticipated film has been the darling of several film festivals, including Toronto and Sundance. Sarah Polley, a well-respected indie actress perhaps best known among movie insiders for giving up the role of Penny Lane in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, adapts and directs Alice Munro’s short story, “The Bear Came Over the Mountain.” Astoundingly, this 28-year-old captures the slow, painful goodbye of the longtime marriage of Fiona and her husband Grant, played remarkably by Canadian actor Gordon Pinsent. Oscar voters should take notice of both performances.

In rural Ontario, the Anderssons have settled into a blissful retirement after Grant’s career as a professor of mythology. They spend their days cross-country skiing and reading, mostly just the two of them – they don’t need anyone or anything. Slowly, they both notice that she is forgetting things, like putting a frying pan in the freezer and struggling painfully to conjure up the word for wine while holding a bottle in her hand. With a sense of recognition, as well as fear in her eyes, she remarks, “I think I may be beginning to disappear.” Summoning up all her strength, she initiates the discussion that they might need help and makes plans to go into a long-term facility. Grant can’t even begin to imagine letting go and leaving her someplace else after 44 years of marriage.

He is not allowed to see Fiona for 30 days after she enters the facility so she can adjust to her new environment, and when he visits, the Fiona he knew is gone. In her new home, she makes a deep connection with Aubrey, a mute stroke victim (veteran actor Michael Murphy), and takes care of him as if he were her lover, and Grant, at first jealous, wants the old Fiona back. Pinsent reveals the grief and sadness of a partner left behind, and through Christie’s eyes, we see the emptiness of a person’s mind fading. Once Aubrey leaves the hospital, Fiona plunges into a deep depression and her condition deteriorates further, forcing Grant to realize that he must subsume his feelings and try and get Aubrey back into Fiona’s life.

Strikingly, Away From Her embraces aging, especially through the close-ups of the actors’ faces. Polley allows the camera to linger on all their wrinkles and lifelines. Throughout the film, it is evident that her depth and grasp as a director exceeds her years, especially in how she gets her cast to reveal deep vulnerabilities. As the credits role over k.d. lang’s version of “Helpless,” you can’t help but recognize you are seeing the beginning of a gifted director’s career.

Melissa Silverstein, a writer on women & popular culture and online editor for The Women's Media Center
May 4, 2007