Movie Review: Away from Her

Away from Her

Written and Directed by Sarah Polley

Based on a short story by Alice Munro

The sparseness in Sarah Polley’s first feature film, especially in its writing and lingering photography makes it one of the strongest films this year. Maybe because I just read it but this crispness is what made me also love The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Both stories are equally devastating to their participants and the simplicity of McCarthy’s prose and Polley’s portrayal of a man dealing with the loss of his wife to Alzheimer’s is what makes them even more powerful. In a lesser director’s hands this could have easily turned into a Lifetime movie.

The film starts with Fiona and Grant happily retired someplace in Canada. Fiona’s memory is gradually failing her, more of a nuisance at first (forgetting where to put the knives or how to pronounce the word “wine”) until one day she goes cross country skiing and doesn’t come home. Grant finds her hours later standing in the cold and looking at a river. At least a hundred American tourists cross the border to do this each year but if you already live there and also can’t remember the color yellow until you look at it, this is a problem.

Before she’s too far gone Fiona decides that she wants to go to a retirement home, probably because she knows that her husband would not be able to make the decision when the time came. This is one of the strongest parts of the film and makes it so heartbreaking for Grant. If she is this lucid, why can’t he keep her with him – at least for a while longer?

After she enters the retirement home Grant becomes “that friendly guy who visits everyday” instead of her husband of 44 years. It’s heartbreaking and only gets worse when Fiona falls for another resident under Grant’s watchful eye. It becomes a kind of purgatory for Grant’s marital sins.

The film treats its audience like it has a brain. Polley never beats us over the head with Grant’s transgressions from the past. They are mentioned but are never really discussed and linger in the pain on Grant’s face or the occasional bitterness betrayed in Fiona’s eyes. These feelings aren’t allowed closure and only add to the pain and guilt of the situation
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Away from Her is one of the year’s best and I’m sure Polley will be nominated for Adapted Screenplay and possibly Best Director Oscars.

I look forward to Sarah Polley’s next effort.

Les