The directorial debut of actress Sarah Polley (The Sweet Hereafter, The Claim) is this bittersweet, compassionate tale of ageing and loss.
Julie Christie gives a superb performance as Fiona, happily married for 50 years and now, devastatingly, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
The film follows her as, accompanied by her husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent), she moves to a residential home, where she is not allowed visitors for the first 30 days in order to help her adjust to her new environment.
When Grant returns to visit, she doesn’t recognise him and has instead transferred her affections to another resident of the home, Aubrey, who she cares for with a loving attentiveness. Grant’s journey as he adjusts to the changes in their relationship leads him to seek out Aubrey’s wife and try to intervene between Aubrey and Fiona, in order to try and find the love he has lost.
This is a quiet, thoughtful film made with care but no moral judgments, and no easy answers in its depiction of the end of a marriage.
