Memory, Oscar Wilde observed in The Importance of Being Earnest, is the diary we all carry about with us, writes Michael Dwyer
Away from Her, Sarah Polley's thoroughly assured feature film debut as a director, addresses the selective nature of memory, as people try to erase uncomfortable recollections
from the diary in the mind. Her movie, however, is specifically concerned with the unwilling loss of memory when a woman falls prey to Alzheimer's.
Fiona (Julie Christie) has been married for 44 years to Grant (Gordon Pinsent), a retired university professor whose early infidelities she has forgiven. The first signals of her illness seem almost incidental within the close domestic environment of their rural Ontario cottage, as when she casually puts a frying pan into the fridge. "Don't worry, I'm just losing my mind," she jokes.
As Fiona's memory lapses become more obvious and dangerous, she makes the decision to enter a retirement home. Grant is apprehensive, which only increases when he's given a tour of the home. Many of the residents who have lived long lives are treated like children all over again.
He is dismayed that new residents are not allowed visitors for the first 30 days, to allow them to "adjust". Finally getting to see Fiona a month later, he is alarmed at her deterioration and that she hardly recognises him. Lovers who were strangers when they met almost half a century ago have become strangers all over again.
Away from Her is a love story that palpably captures the warmth and intimacy between the couple when they make love or when they dance closely to Neil Young's Harvest Moon. It turns achingly tender when the harsh reality of their altered circumstances is unavoidable.
Now 28, Polley, who has been acting since she was six, demonstrates admirable maturity in her treatment of a scenario (which she adapted from an Alice Munro short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain) in which most of the characters are more than twice her age. Her film is tough, concerned and unsentimental, unshowy in its visual style, unobtrusive in its camerawork.
In keeping with the mood of a movie that is almost eerily quiet, the performances are beautifully modulated and understated. Without speaking a word, Michael Murphy is deeply affecting as a resident befriended by Fiona, and Olympia Dukakis plays his worried wife effectively. Pinsent expressively captures all the inner turmoil of a husband in what are supposed to be the golden years in his and his wife's lives.
Christie gives one of the great performances in her brilliant career - well meriting Oscar recognition next year - in the complex role of Fiona, subtly and empathically charting the changes tha grip her. The film becomes unbearably moving when she simply looks lost.
