Away from Her (2006): 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.

This is a very touching movie, without being overly dramatic. There isn’t a teary scene that just makes you ball, but the subject is certainly a serious one.

Julie Christie was phenomenal playing the part of an Alzheimer patient. She is not a crazy person, she is just ill. Her performance with Gordon Pinsent is superb, they sell the fact that they have been married for many years, that they care for each other. But the looks and silences during their scenes tell so much more than the dialogs.

And there is more to the story than the characters are telling. Fiona doesn’t just check into a patient care, but she is also leaving her husband. Again, this is not said out loud, but it’s something we pick up.

Even Grant hinted at the fact that even though they’ve been married for so many years, it doesn’t mean that he’s been a good husband. We don’t know how much Fiona’s behaviour is due to the illness or her own. There is also the interesting dilemma for Grant about moving on after Fiona is gone from their house.

But what I thought about while watching this movie is what I would do if my wife were sick and basically left me. This brought a sort of gloomy feeling to my experience of this movie, which means that I am not going to watch this again.

Apart from that, the pacing is very slow and even though it’s a short movie it felt much longer. I did enjoy this movie, but those problems really prevented me from loving it.

Rating: 3.5 Stars