80
The pain of watching a spouse succumb to Alzheimer's is given a particularly deep and sensitive treatment in Away From Her.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
Polley captures the brisk, cheerful fascism of nursing-home existence with merciless clarity; if you've visited a parent or grandparent in one of those places, you may want to laugh and cry in the same moment.
80
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Away From Her is a twilight-of-life love story, one that harshly demolishes our romantic notions of love and loyalty, then replaces them with something deeper and, finally, more consoling.
80
What Away From Her achieves is quite admirable-- a low-key, intelligent setting for performances marked by those same qualities.
75
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Munro's stark lily needed none of this gilding.
60
It's Sarah Polley through and through: slightly too glum for its own good, but reeking of quality and feeling.
83
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Given the subject, the movie is too romanticized, and Christie's eyes remain too sharp here to convincingly convey someone whose memory is fast slipping away. Much of it is powerful anyway.
88
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
All the acting is first-rate -- Dukakis gives major dimensions to a supporting role. And Christie, a Sixties screen goddess in "Darling" and "Doctor Zhivago," shows that her spirit and grace are eternal. She's a beauty. So is the movie.
Based on the truly lovely and heartbreaking short story by Alice Munro, this film brings her bittersweet work to life. Grant's complicated character paired with the pain of watching a loved one succumb to such a devastating illness makes for such an interesting and fraught dynamic. Absolutely read the short story that accompanies the film!