In Still Alice, Julianne Moore plays a 50-year-old Harvard cognitive psychology professor who’s built an incredible career, balanced with a family life that includes three grown children.
In the prime of her life, she’s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Moore’s portrayal of the character Alice Howland earned her the best actress award at the Golden Globes yesterday. I can’t comment on Moore’s performance – although I’m certain it’s wonderful – however can note something about the character she plays.
The film is based on Lisa Genova’s New York Time bestseller of the same name. It’s the kind of book you could easily cast aside as ‘too depressing’ upon reading the blurb, yet one that despite it’s terrifying ‘what if’ scenario is thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable.
It struck a chord with me because Alice could be any woman. You, me, your mother, sister, best friend, business partner. Her career and family success is enviable and yet the fate that comes with her diagnosis is unimaginable.
Alice experiences a rapid downward spiral following her diagnosis. She’s unable to continue her work, nor even to hold on to her achievements and the capacity for knowledge she’s worked so hard to build up. There is no cure and the disease is increasingly stealing her sense of identity, her words, and ability to even take care of herself.
It’s a story about the fragility of life and how no matter how hard you work, the identity you create for yourself can be taken away. Not by an enemy, or god, or even necessarily from your own mistake, but rather by a random twist of fate.
But it’s also a story about identity. The elements of our accumulative experiences, achievements and work can be stripped away, but we still have consciousness and life. We have a moment, this moment, and can choose to live happily and optimistically within it.
We can be oblivious to the ticking time bomb in our genes, but that doesn’t destroy the fact we’re living a life today. And we shouldn’t have to wait for something to steal our ‘sense of self’ before appreciating the very fact we have a self in the first place.
Moore noted in her acceptance speech that author Genova had told her “no one wanted to make a movie about a middle-aged woman”. We’re all very quick to talk and write about which women can and can’t ‘have it all’ and how the rest of us can manage to emulate the success of others, yet not always so willing to consider the unforeseen consequences that could so quickly take ‘it all’ away.
Thankfully, directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer have shared Genova’ story on the big screen. The character of Lisa Genova — who could really represent any woman — will get the attention she deserves.