Illness will bring pain, but love will give strength

Fay 2022-04-19 09:01:51

It's been a long time since I wrote a full-length movie review, but during the screening of "Still Alice", I had the urge to pick up a pen more than once.

"Still Alice" tells a story about love. Julianne Moore gave a sincere, delicate and extremely moving great performance in the film. With Julianne's expressive performance, with the unfolding of the plot, the audience's heart The tide of emotional resonance came one after another. We get to see Julianne's heartbreaking and engrossing performance throughout the film's many moments.


In a sense, this film can be called the American version of "Women Fifty". Like other fifty-year-old women, Alice has her own joys and troubles; the difference is that Alice is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease Autism, a disease in which memory is progressively degraded or even lost.

The illness had a severe impact on Alice and her family. As a top linguistics professor, a loving wife, and a dedicated mother, Alice could hardly accept the fact at first. On another sleepless night, Alice woke her husband and fell into his arms, crying like a child.

"I wish I had cancer," I could hear a heartbreak as Alice said it calmly to her husband. How deep is her pain? I can't feel it, I can only try to understand.

When those happy or sad memories disappear in your mind bit by bit, as if they were stolen and never found again, you will understand that having memories is really a blessing thing.

Butterfly has only one month's life, Alice was very sad about this, but her mother once told her that the butterfly's life is short but beautiful, which can bring some comfort to Alice who is sick. The butterfly is not only the pendant shape of a necklace her mother gave her, but also the name of a folder on her computer desktop. In that folder, there were various secrets that Alice had reserved for herself when she was awake.

As Alice mentioned in her speech, she struggles with fading memories every day with Alzheimer's disease, a process she describes as an art, an art of mastering loss.


"Still Alice" shows the great pain caused by the disease to Alice, and also shows the bravery, fearlessness and strength of people in the face of illness, and all this comes from love. This is the reason why Alice in the film can move people's hearts and bring comfort to people.

"I was told that I used to be a good teacher and a good mother." When I heard Alice say this, like her husband, I could only silently let the tears fill my eyes.

Thank you, Alice; thank you, Still Alice. Because of love, you are still the Alice we are familiar with and like.


PS: With this excellent performance, Julianne Moore has a great chance of impacting this year's Oscar winner. Twilight's Stewart's acting is also more mature in this film, which is one of the surprises.

View more about Still Alice reviews

Extended Reading
  • Hiram 2022-03-20 09:01:43

    Sad story, shocking performance

  • Rosanna 2021-12-01 08:01:26

    The performance is really wonderful, the script is too mediocre, and the emotions are superficial.

Still Alice quotes

  • Dr. Alice Howland: Good morning. It's an honor to be here. The poet Elizabeth Bishoponce wrote: 'the Art of Losing isn't hard to master: so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster.' I'm not a poet, I am a person living with Early Onset Alzheimer's, and as that person I find myself learning the art of losing every day. Losing my bearings, losing objects, losing sleep, but mostly losing memories...

    [she knocks the pages from the podium]

    Dr. Alice Howland: I think I'll try to forget that just happened.

    [crowd laughs]

    Dr. Alice Howland: All my life I've accumulated memories - they've become, in a way, my most precious possessions. The night I met my husband, the first time I held my textbook in my hands. Having children, making friends, traveling the world. Everything I accumulated in life, everything I've worked so hard for - now all that is being ripped away. As you can imagine, or as you know, this is hell. But it gets worse. Who can take us seriously when we are so far from who we once were? Our strange behavior and fumbled sentences change other's perception of us and our perception of ourselves. We become ridiculous, incapable, comic. But this is not who we are, this is our disease. And like any disease it has a cause, it has a progression, and it could have a cure. My greatest wish is that my children, our children - the next generation - do not have to face what I am facing. But for the time being, I'm still alive. I know I'm alive. I have people I love dearly. I have things I want to do with my life. I rail against myself for not being able to remember things - but I still have moments in the day of pure happiness and joy. And please do not think that I am suffering. I am not suffering. I am struggling. Struggling to be part of things, to stay connected to whom I was once. So, 'live in the moment' I tell myself. It's really all I can do, live in the moment. And not beat myself up too much... and not beat myself up too much for mastering the art of losing. One thing I will try to hold onto though is the memory of speaking here today. It will go, I know it will. It may be gone by tomorrow. But it means so much to be talking here, today, like my old ambitious self who was so fascinated by communication. Thank you for this opportunity. It means the world to me. Thank you.

  • Dr. Alice Howland: I was looking for this last night.

    Dr. John Howland: [whispering to Anna] It was a month ago.