Away From Her (5 out of 10)

I like Sarah Polley - as an actress. As a writer/director she has a long way to go. Away From Her is an extremely ponderous and indulgent piece of filmmaking. It has some great performances - notably by (a still beautiful) Julie Christy and Olympia Dukakis in a thankless and bizarre role. Kristen Thomson is fantastic and it isn't that Gordon Pinsent is bad - he's just playing one droning note throughout the film that gets pretty unbearable as it progresses. Has anyone ever mentioned playing against the text to this guy? Of course, he isn't the main problem. The main problem is the script. I happen to be familiar with the progression of Alzheimers disease and it isn't honestly portrayed in this movie. Some stages are represented too quickly and others happen too slowly. More importantly, the writing is didactic and wooden and I suspect that Ms. Polley was so enamored with the material that she couldn't break away from the short story enough to let a screenplay fly. Some of the dialogue is actually laughable. As far as the direction goes, Polley uses too many long - very long - close up shots bringing the action of the film down to a snails pace. It's repetitious visually and the soundtrack is a snooze. You are never pulled into the plot so you never really care about the characters. There are some teary moments but how can you not have teary moments in a film about a woman losing her mind and thus her identity? And who edited this thing? The non-linear timeline (which doesn't work for this piece) is at times unintelligible. I still don't know if the movie took place in one winter or over the course of two. Possibly Polley wants her audience to feel like they have Alzheimer's too and so she's decided to keep us confused. This is a 110 minute indulgence that feels a good half hour longer than it is. Sometimes short stories should just stay short stories Sarah. Sundance seems to be really into letting actors direct - unfortunately it's an experiment that is more often a failure than a success. This isn't the worst film I've ever seen at Sundance, but the last thing a filmmaker wants to do is bore their audience. Better luck next time. - Brahman