Trailer: Away From Her
Genre: Art/Foreign, Romance
Filming Location: Canada
Synopsis: Away From Her is the lyrical
screenplay adaptation of celebrated author Alice Munro’s short
story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”.
Away From Her is a beautifully moving love story that
deals with memory and the circuitous, unnamable paths of a long
marriage. Married for 50 years, Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona’s (Julie Christie) commitment to each other appears
unwavering, and their everyday life is full of tenderness and
humour. This serenity is broken only by the occasional, carefully
restrained reference to the past, giving a sense that this marriage
may not always have been such a fairy tale. This tendency of
Fiona’s to make such references, along with her increasingly
evident memory loss, creates a tension that is usually brushed off
casually by both of them. As the lapses become more obvious and
dramatic, it is no longer possible for either of them to ignore the
fact that Fiona is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Eventually, Fiona decides that it is time for her to enter into
Meadowlake, a retirement home that specializes in the disease. One
of the more archaic rules of Meadowlake is that a patient may not
have any visitors during their first month in the facility in order
to “adjust.” After an excruciatingly painful 30 days separated from
his wife, Grant returns to Meadowlake to discover Fiona seems to
have no memory of him and has turned all of her affection to Aubrey
(Michael Murphy), another resident in the
home.
Grant, finding no option but to accept his new status as an
attentive acquaintance visits her daily and is forced to bear
witness to the cement bond that has developed between her and
Aubrey. Over time, he befriends Kristy (Kristen Thomson), a salt of the earth nurse who
works at Meadowlake. Touched by his dogged devotion, she takes a
special interest in him. Through their conversations, Grant’s
imperfect history and the perverse poetic justice of this agonizing
situation with Fiona and Aubrey becomes evident.
When Aubrey’s wife, Marian (Olympia Dukakis) returns from her vacation, she
suddenly takes Aubrey out of Meadowlake. Fiona is devastated by the
separation and enters into a deep depression. Her condition
deteriorates rapidly. Grant, fearful for Fiona’s life, embarks on
the greatest act of self-sacrifice of his life as a means to
attaining his wife’s final happiness.