The Frame

Sarah Polley’s directorial debut which has gotten rave reviews all year. I still find it most interesting that Polley, a twenty-something indie actress, would choose to make her directorial debut a film about an older woman (Julie Christie) suffering from Alzheimer’s, and the strain it puts on her husband (Gordon Pinsent). It’s an unusual move, but one that really works well. Fiona commits herself to a home when she fears that her lessening mental abilities make it too difficult for her husband Grant to care for her; however, the home requires a 30-day period of isolation for new residents to integrate them into their new community (which I think is dumb, but I am not an Alzheimer’s doctor), and it’s unclear how well Fiona even remembers Grant by the end of it. The film is as much or more about Grant trying to deal with losing his wife as it is about Fiona, and it’s heartbreaking at times. The acting is wonderfully understated, and Polley has a sure hand with the pacing and script. Especial kudos to Christie for an absolutely incredible performance in depicting the knowing descent into the disease. It starts to lose itself a little near the end, but there’s simply so much good here that it’s mostly easy to ignore the very few missteps.
Superior