by Dino Ladki

Created on: November 30, 2009

Sarah Polley's strength as an actor has always been her beautiful restraint. It is a quality that has added gravity to every film she has acted in. Mastery of that quality was essential in pulling off Away From Her, her directorial debut.

Polley has said "I feel like, for me, the most interesting thing to watch in a film is somebody's face in stillness." It is that intrinsic interest that saved this film from being maudlin Lifetime Television bait. It's that aforementioned gravity, the capturing of the smallest moments of the human landscape, that makes the audience feel exceedingly present in this story.

Adapted by Polley from Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over The Mountain," Away From Her is seemingly a film about the decline of a person at the hands of Alzheimer's disease, but it is really a love story: One told from a unique perspective in today's film world in that it revolves around a couple that has been together for nearly fifty years, with all the emotional scar tissue to show for it, rather than a new couple who are fueled by hormones and the novelty of new love.

Fiona and Grant Andersson (played by the luminescent Julie Christie and Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent, respectively), are a loving couple enjoying their retirement years together. They entertain, cross-country ski and go on nature walks. Their commitment to each other is clearly unwavering but their serenity is broken when Fiona's memory loss continues to worsen and they have to come to terms with the fact that she will soon need professional care.

One of the most interesting things about this film is that this aging couple is so sexy. Their lived-in quality and their adoration for each other help to radiate this. And the vibrancy of their youth still glows all over them. They were and still are - cool people. So much so that when Fiona enters the retirement home it is ghastly for us to think of her living with all of these "old people." It makes us cringe. Christie brings a charm and vulnerability to the character that deepens, rather than diminishes, as the condition progresses. She remains a dignified beauty throughout.

Some of the fabric of their storied relationship comes to the fore just before Fiona enters the retirement home. She reveals to Grant that one thing she can't seem to forget is an indiscretion of his from early in their marriage. The peace she had once made with it washed away, but ironically not the memory...not yet. This makes the coming developments all the

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