In “Still Alice,” Julianne Moore plays a 50-year-old professor of linguistics at Columbia University, who while jogging on campus one day finds herself baffled about where she is. That and other symptoms of memory loss lead to a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The drama takes a painstakingly realistic approach as Alice tries to cling to her identity. If she can’t use words, who is she? It also charts the sometimes devastating effect on her family. Kristen Stewart plays her youngest child; their fraught relationship is particularly tested.
Ms. Moore is likely to get Oscar recognition; Alec Baldwin also plays an important part as Alice’s husband. (He also acted husband to last year’s best- actress Oscar winner, Cate Blanchett, in “Blue Jasmine.”) He plays a good man, yet far from the heroic husband who might be expected in a film about a disease. He has his own ambitions, and doesn’t want life to just come to a halt for the family.
“This is a man who clearly feels that if he keeps moving forward he can slow down or even sidestep what’s happening to his wife,” Mr., Baldwin said via email. “I think in the end he is just afraid and makes his decisions from that place.”
Although the film is based on a novel, by Lisa Genova, its realism was informed by its writing-directing team of Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (“Quinceanera” in 2006).
Mr. Westmoreland is the husband of Mr. Glatzer, who was diagnosed with the motor neuron disease ALS in 2011. While his physical deterioration was different from the fictional Alice’s mental loss of faculties, both conditions cause irreversible declines. Mr. Glatzer co-directed the film from his wheelchair, able to type out messages with only one finger.
And just as the film sounds more unrelentingly grim than it is, there was humor during production. “Richard’s condition is obviously heartbreaking, but it also led to some funny moments on the set,” Mr. Baldwin said. At times, Mr. Glatzer would clarify Mr. Westmoreland’s direction to the actors. “One day, I blurted out, ‘Oh great! I’m working with a tandem directing team and the guy with the good notes has ALS’, and everyone laughed,” Mr. Baldwin said. The film plays one week in New York, then hits theaters again starting Jan. 16.
