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Still Alice

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Still Alice
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Screenplay by
  • Richard Glatzer
  • Wash Westmoreland
Produced by
  • James Brown
  • Pamela Koffler
  • Lex Lutzus
Starring
CinematographyDenis Lenoir
Edited byNicolas Chaudeurge
Music byIlan Eshkeri
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release dates
  • September 8, 2014 (2014-09-08) (TIFF)
  • December 5, 2014 (2014-12-05) (United States)
Running time
101 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[2]
Box office$19.5 million[2]

Still Alice is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland[3][4] and based on Lisa Genova's 2007 bestselling novel of the same name. The film stars Julianne Moore in the role of Alice Howland, a linguistics professor at Columbia diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Alec Baldwin plays her husband John. Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, and Hunter Parrish play her children Lydia, Anna, and Tom.

The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2014.[5] Moore's performance has earned universal acclaim including wins for a Golden Globe for Best Actress – Drama, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, a SAG Award, a BAFTA Award and an Academy Award, among other nominations and accolades.

Plot

Dr. Alice Howland (Julianne Moore), a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, mother of three children and wife to John Howland (Alec Baldwin), learns that she is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's disease. After discovering it was genetically inherited from her father, her children test themselves to see if the disease has been passed to them. The eldest daughter, Anna (Kate Bosworth), tests positive. Anna is having twins, but they prove not to have the mutated gene. Her only son, Tom, a junior Doctor proves to be negative and her youngest daughter, Lydia (Kristen Stewart), decides not to be tested.

Alice, concerned and afraid for her future and how that will affect those around her, begins to try memorizing random words that she writes and then hides on a blackboard, as well as setting up important personal questions on her phone that she tasks herself with answering every morning. Tagged at the end is a message telling her to go to a video she recorded which instructs her future self to commit suicide via sleeping-pill overdose should she be unable to answer the questions.

Alice's disease progresses, while relations with her family are strained from many separate directions, including the loss of her academic position, her husband's work demands, her continually increasing needs, and Lydia's elusive acting career. Alice is able to attend an Alzheimer's conference and deliver a moving speech to a standing ovation regarding the difficulties she is forced to endure. Over the course of several months, her disease begins to take its toll, and Alice begins to have difficulty answers her questions or spelling them correctly. It gets to the point where, following one of Lydia's plays, she initially fails to recognize her daughter. Further stress is added when John announces that they must move to Minnesota to better their financial situation, as well as her losing her phone for a month.

After having a video chat with Lydia, she tries to open a file her daughter sent her, but inadvertently opens the video file addressed to herself. Having regressed even further at this point, she willingly complies with its dire instructions and, with some difficulty, is able to get the pills and go to the bathroom. She pours them into her palm and is about to take them, when the front door is suddenly opened by her caretaker. Flinching, she spills the pills onto the floor and then forgets what she was doing, ending the possibility of her committing suicide.

John resolves to move to Minnesota while Lydia moves from her home in California to care for her worsening mother. Lydia reads Alice a section of the play, Angels in America, and, upon being questioned about its meaning, Alice, now barely able to form words, manages to speak one: love.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Lex Lutzus and James Brown of Lutzus/Brown along with Pamela Koffler of Killer Films. It was executive produced by American journalist and author Maria Shriver along with Christine Vachon of Killer Films and Declan Baldwin of Big Indie pictures.[6]

Principal photography began in New York on March 3, 2014.[7] Scenes were shot at 162nd Street between Edgecombe and Amsterdam in New York as well as at Columbia University, Lido Beach, New York and Dobbs Ferry, New York.[8] Filming wrapped in early April.[citation needed]

On July 22, 2014, with the announcement of film's premiere at TIFF, the first still of Julianne Moore as Dr. Alice Howland from the film was released.[9]

Release

Sony Pictures Classics bought the US distribution rights for the film in a low seven figure deal that was announced on September 11, 2014. SPC gave the film a one week qualifying run for the Oscars starting December 5, 2014, with a wider theatrical release on January 16, 2015.[10][11] The film went into full wide release in the United States on February 27, 2015.[12]

Piracy

The film was leaked onto peer-to-peer file sharing websites on November 27, over a month ahead of its intended public release. Along with it came Fury and three other at-the-time unreleased Sony Pictures films (Annie, Mr. Turner, and To Write Love on Her Arms).[13] Within three days of the initial leak, Still Alice had been downloaded by an estimated 103,832 unique IPs.[13]

Box office

As of March 15, 2015, Still Alice has grossed an estimated domestic total of $16,440,000 after the film's ninth week of release.[14] The international box office, as of March 8, is an estimated $3,030,231.[15]

Reception

Still Alice premiered at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews, with emphasis on Julianne Moore's performance. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 90% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads, "Elevated by a gripping performance from Julianne Moore, Still Alice is a heartfelt drama that honors its delicate themes with bravery and sensitivity."[16] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17]

The National Board of Review Awards named Still Alice as one of the top ten independent films of 2014.[18]

Peter Debruge of Variety wrote in a positive review that the film had been shot "in such a way that activity is constantly spilling beyond the edges of the frame, giving the impression that characters’ lives continue when they’re not on camera, even as Alice’s seems to be closing in around her. Just as her kids look for ever-fainter signs of their mother behind those eyes, we lean in to watch Moore the actress turn invisible within her own skin."[19]

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "warm, compassionate, but bitingly honest" and asserted that Julianne Moore had a "career-high performance." Young also praised the direction of the film, noting that "the directors tackle a subject where a restrained, understated approach is the best insurance against sloppy sentimentality. It pays off handsomely in the film’s closing moments, a poignant, poetic confrontation between the generations that draws the best from Moore and reveals unexpected depth in Stewart."[20]

Gregory Ellwood of Hitfix praised Moore: "In each scene she peels a little bit more of Alice away as the emotional pain of the disease takes its toll..." Ellwood also praised the direction, stating, "The duo behind the critically acclaimed Quinceañera let the film's narrative unspool in as restrained a manner as possible. There are no unbelievable hysterics. There are no self-aware screaming matches."[21]

Tim Grierson of Screen International praised the understated direction and Moore, as well as Baldwin, Stewart, and Bosworth's supporting work: "Baldwin is particularly good as an ambitious medical researcher who is losing not just his wife but also a woman who was as driven as he was." Grierson added, "With nuance, Bosworth and Stewart both play women who seem to have been profoundly shaped by their impressive mother, and we feel the characters’ confusion at having her influence suddenly ripped away from them (Stewart especially shines, initially playing a prototypical starving-artist type who surprises her family by her response to Alice’s diagnosis)."[22]

Accolades

For her performance as Dr. Alice Howland, Julianne Moore won the Academy Award for Best Actress among other awards and nominations.

List of Accolades
Award / Film Festival Category Recipient(s) Result
Academy Awards[23] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Alliance of Women Film Journalists[24] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
EDA Special Mention Award – Actress Defying Age and Ageism Still Alice Nominated
AACTA International Awards[25] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
BAFTA Awards[26] Best Actress in a Leading Role Julianne Moore Won
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards[27] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Critics' Choice Movie Awards[28] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association[29] Best Actress Julianne Moore Runner-up
Detroit Film Critics Society[30] Best Actress Julianne Moore Nominated
Dorian Awards[31] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Florida Film Critics Circle[32] Best Actress Julianne Moore Runner-up
Golden Globe Awards[33] Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama Julianne Moore Won
Georgia Film Critics Association[34] Best Actress Julianne Moore Nominated
Gotham Independent Film Awards[35] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Hollywood Film Awards[36] Hollywood Actress Award Julianne Moore Won
Houston Film Critics Society Awards[37] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Independent Spirit Awards[38] Best Female Lead Julianne Moore Won
International Cinephile Society Awards[39] Best Actress Julianne Moore Runner-up
London Film Critics Circle Awards[40] Actress of the Year Julianne Moore Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards[41] Best Actress Julianne Moore Runner-up
MPSE Golden Reel Awards[42] Feature English Language – Dialogue/ADR Javier Bennassar Nominated
National Board of Review Awards[43] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Top 10 Independent Films Still Alice Won
Online Film Critics Society Awards[44] Best Actress Julianne Moore Nominated
Palm Springs International Film Festival[45] Desert Palm Achievement Award Julianne Moore Won
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards[46] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Satellite Awards[47] Best Actress – Motion Picture Julianne Moore Won
Screen Actors Guild Awards[48] Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Julianne Moore Won
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association[49] Best Actress Julianne Moore Nominated
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards[50] Best Actress Julianne Moore Runner-up
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards[51] Best Actress Julianne Moore Won
Women Film Critics Circle Best Actress Julianne Moore Won

References

  1. ^ "STILL ALICE (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  2. ^ a b "Still Alice (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  3. ^ "Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin, Kate Bosworth Join Julianne Moore in 'Still Alice'". thewrap. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  4. ^ "AFM: Julianne Moore Boards Adaptation of 'Alice' Novel (EXCLUSIVE)". variety. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  5. ^ "Advertisement". Variety. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  6. ^ "Kristen Stewart confirmed for Still Alice". Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  7. ^ "Kristen Stewart Isn't Changing Her Routine Now That She's in NYC". Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  8. ^ "Filming Locations for 'Still Alice', starring Kristen Stewart and Julianne Moore, in NYC Mar. 3 – Mar. 7". Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  9. ^ "TIFF First Look: Kate Winslet In 'A Little Chaos,' Paul Dano As Brian Wilson In 'Love & Mercy' & Julianne Moore In 'Still Alice'". July 22, 2014.
  10. ^ Mike Fleming Jr. "Julianne Moore Movie 'Still Alice' Headed For Awards-Season Run - Deadline". Deadline. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  11. ^ "Advertisement". Variety. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  12. ^ "'Still Alice' Oscar buzz brings attention to Alzheimer's". Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Sony's New Movies Leak Online Following Hack Attack". Variety. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  14. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=weekly&id=stillalice.htm
  15. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=stillalice.htm
  16. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/still_alice/
  17. ^ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/still-alice
  18. ^ Hilary Lewis. "'A Most Violent Year' Named Best Film by National Board of Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  19. ^ "Advertisement". Variety. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  20. ^ Deborah Young. "'Still Alice': Toronto Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  21. ^ "Review: Julianne Moore is shattering in wonderfully restrained Still Alice". HitFix. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  22. ^ "Still Alice". Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  23. ^ "Academy Awards nominations 2015". Oscars.go.com. January 15, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  24. ^ "2014 EDA Awards Winners". Alliance of Women Film Journalists. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  25. ^ Hawker, Philippa; Boyle, Finlay (January 7, 2014). "AACTA international nominations 2015: The Babadook a surprise inclusion". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
  26. ^ http://awards.bafta.org/award/2015/film
  27. ^ "2014 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Nominations". Retrieved December 12, 2014.
  28. ^ Gray, Tim (December 15, 2014). "'Birdman,' 'Grand Budapest' Top Critics Choice Awards Nominations". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2014. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  29. ^ "The 2014 Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Winners". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  30. ^ "The 2014 Detroit Film Critics Society Awards Winners". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  31. ^ "The 2014 Dorian Awards Winners". Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  32. ^ "Florida Film Critics Circle Winners". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  33. ^ "2015 Golden Globe Nominations". Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  34. ^ "2015 Georgia Film Critics Association Winners". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  35. ^ "Gotham Independent Film Awards 2014 Nominations". Rotten Tomatoes. October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.
  36. ^ Aaron Couch. "Hollywood Film Awards: Complete Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  37. ^ "The Houston Film Critics Society Award Winners for 2014" (Press release). Houston Film Critics. PR Houston Film Critics. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  38. ^ "'Birdman' Tops Spirit Awards Nominations (Full List)". Variety. November 25, 2014. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  39. ^ "2015 ICS Award Nominees". icsfilm.org. February 2, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2015.
  40. ^ "35th London Film Critics Circle Awards". criticscircle.org.uk. December 19, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  41. ^ "40th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Winners Published". lafca.net. December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  42. ^ "'Birdman,' 'Apes' Top 2015 Golden Reel Nominations". Deadline.com. January 14, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  43. ^ "National Board of Review Announces 2014 Award Winners". National Board of Review. December 2, 2014. Retrieved December 2, 2014.
  44. ^ "'Boyhood,' 'Grand Budapest' lead with 2014 online film critics nominations". HitFix. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  45. ^ "Julianne Moore earns Palm Springs Film Festival's Best Actress award". HitFix. November 13, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  46. ^ "2014 San Francisco Critics Circle Awards Nominations". December 13, 2014. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
  47. ^ "The International Press Academy Announces Nominations For The 19th Annual Satellite™ Awards". Yahoo!. December 1, 2014. Retrieved December 1, 2014.
  48. ^ "2015 SAG Awards nominations - complete list". Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  49. ^ "2015 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Winners". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  50. ^ "The Toronto Film Critics Association names Richard Linklater's Boyhood the Best Film of the Year". Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  51. ^ "Boyhood and Birdman Dominate This Years Washington DC Film Critics Awards". WKRG.com. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
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