28-year-old director Sarah Polley, making her debut with Away From Her, wrote this adaptation of Alice Munro's short story The Bear Went Over The Mountain singlemindedly for Julie Christie, an actress who had always inspired her.
Christie and Gordon Pinsent play an aged couple struggling with Christie's character developing Alzheimer's. Shifted into a nursing home and heartbreakingly loses all memory of her husband, and starts nurturing a romance with a fellow resident.
Newsweek's David Ansen says it well: 'For anyone who grew up worshiping at the shrine of Julie Christie, the notion that she could be playing a white-haired woman drifting into senility is a jolt to the system. But her radiance, beauty and talent are undiminished: she's hauntingly, heartbreakingly good.'
Could this be another year for Julie? Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, we need to all feel grateful that she's still making us wonder.
Photograph: An effervescent Julie in Away From Her
Also read: Nominee Spotlight: Tony Gilroy
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