Movie Review: Still Alice

I recently watched the 2014 film called Still Alice, starring Julianne Moore in the title role. My overall opinion on this movie after watching it was that it was pretty good; not outstanding by any means, but none the less a really well-made motion picture that was enjoyable to watch on screen.
First, I'll give a quick summation as to what exactly Still Alice is about. The main character, Alice Howland, is a linguistics professor at a college and prides herself in her intellect and intelligence. After getting diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease, her life undergoes a massive change as her and her entire family cope with her developing illness.
I found the storyline of this movie to be really good, and I think that it paints a good picture of the struggles related with Alzheimer's disease. I felt that the directors, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, did a very thorough job of broaching not only Alice's mental decline but also the profound effects that this has on her life and family. It was a very real and believable movie that I felt was very sincere.
I would say that the main problem I have with Still Alice lies in the acting. This issue certainly is not pertaining to Moore's acting, as she pulled off the character of Alice seemingly flawlessly. I also thought that Alec Baldwin, who plays Alice's husband in the film, did a good job portraying a man who is slowly losing the wife that he once knew. The main issue for me lies in the character of Alice's daughter Lydia, played by Kristen Stewart, and the mother-daughter relationship between them. I didn't feel a genuine connection, and especially felt that Stewart's portrayal of Lydia lacked the appropriate level of emotion that was required for the role. I'm not saying that Kristen Stewart should have portrayed a daughter hysterical with grief to the point of being unbelievable, but I didn't get any sense of emotion from her whatsoever throughout the entirety of Still Alice. There just seemed to be something lacking, and the character Lydia and her relationship with her mother Alice never blossomed into anything special on screen for me.
So in conclusion, I feel that Still Alice does have some very strong points, particularly with the way that the storyline was handled and in Julianne Moore's acting. But the movie as a whole, despite being touching to watch, was relatively unremarkable in my opinion. I probably would recommend this movie to anyone that typically enjoys dramas, and perhaps some will find this movie more profound than I did.

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Drama

Run Time: 101 minutes

Release Date: December 5, 2014

My Rating: ★★★☆☆