A little grace

by RICHARD JONES

SARAH Polley has made a seamless transition from in front of the camera to behind it in her directorial debut, Away From Her.

For me Polley's finest acting performance was 2003's My Life Without Me, the story of a young woman dying of cancer and trying desperately to leave her family well organised enough to cope when she's no longer there.

In Away From Her the central female character, a much older woman, is also leaving her family but for a quite different reason.

Fiona (Julie Christie) decides it's time for her to move into a nursing home. Suffering from Alzheimer's disease, her disorientation is becoming worse.

Husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) can take the frying pan out of the fridge and place it in the cupboard and help Fiona with words she just can't get from her brain onto her tongue. Yet he is helpless in the face of the worsening condition confronting his beloved wife of 44 years.

"We are at that stage," she says to Grant after wandering off and becoming disoriented. "I think all we can aspire to is a little grace."

So Fiona takes matters into her own hands and moves into a nursing home and it's here where the film's title makes sense. "I never wanted to be away from her," says the distraught and loving husband in a voice-over.

With Fiona now in the home Grant is not allowed to see her for the first month. When he eventually gets to see his wife she seems to have forgotten him and formed an attachment to wheelchair-bound inmate Aubrey (Michael Murphy).

Like Grant, Aubrey's wife (Olympia Dukakis) is another loving spouse who has become something of an outside observer. Fiona and Aubrey have their own relationships and ordered regimen within the nursing home. The devoted spouses become interesting visitors, but outsiders nevertheless.

26 November 2007

australianrules.com.au

Disclaimer