Away From Her - A Film Review
The film Away From Her, is a screenplay adaptation from the short story Bear came over the Mountain by Alice Munro. The story focuses around the relationship of Fiona and Grant, an Ontario couple married over 40 years. The couple is forced to face that fact that Fionas forgetfulness is actually Alzheimers disease. After Fiona wanders away and is found after being lost, she realizes that she can no longer live at home. Fiona has too much self-pride for herself, and too much pity for Grant, to subject him to her deteriorating mind. She makes the decision on her own to check into a comfortable nearby nursing home. The nursing home they choose has a no-visitors policy for the first thirty days of the patients stay, to let them adjust to their new settings. When Grant visits Fiona after the first month of her staying in the nursing home, he finds out that not only has she forgotten him, but Fiona has transferred her feelings to another man. The other man is Aubrey, a wheelchair bound mute patient at the nursing home. His wife Marian later moves Aubrey out of the home. As the distance between Grant and Fiona increases, Grant must sacrifice his own happiness for Fiona. This moving story, was told from the perspective of the director and screenplay writer, Sarah Polley. I believe that she used the films focus of Alzheimer, humour and intimacy between the characters to show an honest relationship of a forty-year marriage.
Objectively the film is the struggle of relationship with a women suffering from Alzheimers. I think that the director, Sarah Polley used role of Alzheimers in the film as a metaphor for how memory plays out in a long relationship: what we choose to remember what we choose to forget. At a point in the film, where Grant drove Fiona, we get a glimmer that their marriage wasnt all like it seemed to be. Fiona mentions a younger woman, a student of Grants who somehow had an impact of their marriage. Although Fiona doesnt come out right and say it, the film
Objectively the film is the struggle of relationship with a women suffering from Alzheimers. I think that the director, Sarah Polley used role of Alzheimers in the film as a metaphor for how memory plays out in a long relationship: what we choose to remember what we choose to forget. At a point in the film, where Grant drove Fiona, we get a glimmer that their marriage wasnt all like it seemed to be. Fiona mentions a younger woman, a student of Grants who somehow had an impact of their marriage. Although Fiona doesnt come out right and say it, the film
Bibliography: Opinion Piece about FilmAway From Her. Film (2006)