Hard to rate a movie this high when I did not, really did not, enjoy almost the entire first half of the movie. But good god, when this thing gets going it's like am emotional locomotive you can't get out of the way of.
Julliane Moore stars as a linguistics professor who realizes she's starting to forget words, lose place of where she is, and so on. An Alzheimers diagnosis soon follows.
My main issue is that most of the cast, especially Alec Baldwin as the husband, seem like they're sleepwalking through the first half of the movie. There's also this very high and mighty liberal vibe to the whole thing, like hey, we're making a movie about Alzheimers, aren't we grand. The entire setup comes across as a very by the book story that you feel just ought to be a lot better.
But then the script, and the actors, kick things into high gear. Does it go anywhere you aren't expecting? Not really. But the pacing and the story get maximum impact out of Alices mental degradation. Moore is just brilliant, and even Baldwin, who appeared to sleepwalk his way through the first act, comes alive in a very subtle but thunderous way. Kristin Stewart also shines.
Still Alice takes a while to get going, but once it does, it hits on all cylinders and packs every bit the punch that the first half of the movie is intimating, but not delivering on.
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