Still Alice: Julianne Moore delivers heartbreaking performance as professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s

JULIANNE Moore delivers a heartbreaking, emotionally astute portrayal of a woman disappearing in full view of her nearest and dearest.

Still Alice (M)

Directors: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland

Starring: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish.

Rating: ***1/2

So much found in so much lost

In Still Alice, Julianne Moore delivers a heartbreaking, emotionally astute portrayal of a woman disappearing in full view of her nearest and dearest.

Alice (Moore) is a linguistics professor who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s, a rare strain of the debilitating disease that strikes much younger and swifter than is usual.

Family drama ... Julianne Moore shares the screen with Alec Baldwin in Still Alice.

The entry and exit points of this tale have been well selected by the filmmakers.

Alice learns of her plight surprisingly early in proceedings, allowing a closer, more detailed examination of after-effects of the diagnosis that other movies might have let slide.

The same goes for a very credible handling of how Alice’s slowly intensifying condition impacts upon her husband (Alec Baldwin) and grown children (including a lively, well-cast Kristen Stewart).

Tremendous performance ... Julianne Moore plays an academic who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

As it turns out, Alice has also contracted a predatory Alzheimer’s variant that is guaranteed to be passed along to at least some of her offspring.

Though Alice’s powers of recall are on the wane, the pain she feels over bringing a seeming curse into the fold is never quite lost on her.

Moore’s faultless (and Oscar-nominated) read of her character — particularly when interacting with a wide family circle who react to the news in wildly varying ways — is like watching a canvas being painted in reverse.

Moment by moment, all colour and life is slowly fading from view.

Based on the best-selling 2007 novel by Lisa Genova.

Originally published as Still Alice: Julianne Moore delivers heartbreaking performance as professor diagnosed with Alzheimer’s