Still Alice

2014 Alzheimer's movie

Rating: 14/20 (Jen: 17/20)

Plot: A linguistics professor is diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and deals with her rapidly-declining memory and other mental faculties.

Julianne Moore is always great, and--predictably--she's great here in a role that requires her to show a range of vacancies. Did she deserve her Best Actress award? Well, there's a scene in this where she pisses herself because she can't find the bathroom and Alec Baldwin looks like he's about to burst into laughter. You know--the natural state of a Baldwin brother. Actually, let's have a look at the guy. Here's a collection of pictures of Alec Baldwin from various stages in his illustrious television and film career. Study them.

See? In every picture, the guy's either just about to laugh or trying to hold in a laugh. You can Google Image Alec Baldwin yourself if you want, but this is mostly what you'll see. The only other Alec Baldwin you'll see is one that is about to come through your computer monitor and yell at you. That's likely either because a paparazzo is trying to take a picture of his wife or because somebody's told him he's not allowed to play Words with Friends.

Oh, you know what? This movie references Words with Friends. Do you think he read that in the script and didn't make the connection? Or did he read it in the script and say, "Wait just a second. Are screenwriters Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland messing with me here?" but then agree to do the film anyway?

But I digress. Alec Baldwin's character definitely shouldn't have laughed at his poor Alzheimer-ridden wife's micturating herself, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. I wanted to say something about her Academy Award. And I'm saying that if Moore actually did urinate in that scene, she definitely deserves the Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. If I find out that piss was nothing more than special effects or, even worse, computer-generated piss, I think the award should have gone to somebody else.

This movie's fine, and it's about an important subject, one that's close to my wife's heart. I thought it was a little jumpy and, at the same time, a little redundant. And Kristen Stewart was in this for some reason. Moore really was good whether that urine was real or fake.