Julianne Moore continually amazes me. Moore delivers a one-two punch at the Toronto International Film Festival this year with the go-for-broke craziness of Maps to the Stars and the emotional wallop of Still Alice. It’s impossible to compare the two performances or say which one deserves to bring Moore major kudos at the end of the year. They both do. Each turn sits on opposite poles of the scale for award-season friendliness, but together they show that Moore remains at the forefront of her craft, pushing herself and breaking barriers for actresses as she shows that no role is off limits. She’s the acting champ of TIFF this year.
It helps, too, that her utterly devastating turn as Alice Howland, a psychology professor who experiences early onset Alzheimer’s disease, comes in one of the sleeper hits of the Festival. Still Alice is an emotional force of a film first and foremost thanks to Moore’s subtle, heartfelt, and immaculately empathetic performance. Every slip of Alice’s memory and every glimmer of confusion are palpably clear. Expect to have your heart torn to pieces.
The heart of the film is Alice’s relationship with her daughter Lydia. Lydia comes intensely to life thanks to Kristen Stewart, who, like Moore, is easily a champ of TIFF 2014 thanks to her equally strong performance in Olivier Assayas’s Clouds of Sils Maria. Stewart grows Lydia from a self-involved flighty artist into a compassionate maternal figure, eager and willing to return the love her mother gave her as a child. Stewart arguably gives her most emotional and vulnerable performance to date. Her final monologue, in which she recites to Alice Harper’s final monologue from Tony Kushner’s Angles in America, is one of the most heartrending scenes you’ll see this year. Stills Alice responds with Moore’s finest scene of the film, which totally submerses Alice in her disease but brings to the surface the one true element that cannot be forgotten in a parent-child relationship: love.
Nick >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> That disgusting piece of crap Joe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Don't get me started on the other
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