10/10/13 UPDATE: Away from Her is based on the story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro. Today Munro became the 13th woman in history to win the Nobel Prize for Literature 🙂
2008 UPDATE: Congratulations to writer/director Sarah Polley (nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar) & Julie Christie (nominated for the Best Actress Oscar).
From our original FF2 Haiku:
Julie Christie plays a character fighting against & ultimately succumbing to Alzheimer’s disease. Christie is luminous but the film really belongs to Gordon Pinsent playing her memory-wracked husband. Once she’s admitted to a long term care residence, actors Wendy Crewson & Kristen Thomson come into their own as experienced care-givers, & Olympia Dukakis is perfect as the rueful wife of another patient. (JLH: 4/5) Click HERE for our FF2 Haiku.
FYI, one quibble from my reflections on Oscar 2008:
“This brings us to the Best Actor and Best Actress categories. Julie Christie was nominated for a Best Actress award for Away from Her, even though her role was actually just as much of a supporting part as the three others I have already mentioned. “Grant” is definitely the main character; all the action is told from his POV. So it was a real shame that Gordon Pinsent was NOT nominated in the Best Actor category. Me? I would’ve been very, very happy to see both Julie Christie and Olympia Dukakis nominated in the Supporting Actress category.”
Photo Credits: Michael Gibson/Lions Gate Films