Away from Her (2007) 4/4

Julie Christie stars (and shines) in this tragic and lovely story of a husband and wife's struggle with ageing. It is beautifully adapted and directed by Canadian TV icon Sarah Polley in her debut off the screen.
Fiona (Julie Christie) begins to show signs of memory loss so she and her husband Grant (played sincerely and honestly by Gordon Pinsent) look at their options. After being pressured by Fiona, Grant reluctantly looks into a retirement community for Alzheimer's patients. He has to leave her there for 30 days without visitation so she can adjust. By the end of the 30 days, she has "buddied-up" with another patient and doesn't remember who Grant is.
Grant's guilt from an affair decades ago makes him feel that this is fateful penance or possibly she's subconsciously punishing him. He still visits her daily and reads to her about Iceland, a place she never went in order to keep it mystical.
Using very subtle, unobtrusive cinematography, Polley shows us this world of tragedy and guilt without it ever needing to look murky. It is obvious that Polley is no actor-turned-director luck story but that her career is just beginning.
This is a very Canadian film. It's set in the heart of Canada with a Canadian soundtrack (complete with Neil Young and k.d. lang), a Canadian crew, and Canadian actors who say "aboot" and "eh". It adds so much to the realism having all these elements as the script was just begging to be shot independently.
This definitely isn't "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" but there's one minor humorous character that was a highlight for me. One of the Alzheimer's patients is a former play-by-play announcer for Hockey Night in Canada who in his senility sees life as one big hockey game.
Despite a little clunky dialogue from the amateurish nurses at the Home, I loved this film. The story and the way it's presented is on par with Wild Strawberries and Umberto D as a window into the effects and inevitabilities of ageing.