By Ed Koch
“Away From Her” (+)
This simple but moving picture depicts how Alzheimer’s affects a couple that has been married for 44 years.
A 62-year-old woman, Fiona (Julie Christie), lives in Canada with her husband, Grant (Gordon Pinsent). We learn she has the disease when she places a frying plan in the refrigerator after washing and drying it. Fiona is clearly a woman of great grace, charm and intellect, and in her deterioration, Grant continues to treat her with dignity, respect and love.
As Fiona’s health declines she becomes a danger to herself when she leaves the house, wanders the streets, and becomes lost. They both agree that he can no longer care for her at home and she should move to an assisted-living house where she can be properly cared for. The balance of the movie depicts what occurs in the home. There is no patient abuse, but unexpected occurrences take place which ring true and never appear contrived. Fiona and Grant interact with another couple in the home: Aubrey (Michael Murphy) who is the patient and his wife, Marian (Olympia Dukakis).
Julie Christie is as gorgeous as she was in the movie “Dr. Zhivago.” As I watched her on screen, “Laura’s Theme” from that film kept playing in my mind. The acting is spare but wonderful, and the dialogue is mature. At no time is there a soap opera tinge to the film, but I found myself in tears throughout the movie.
When I left the theater, I met a woman whom I have known for 50 years but seldom see. Fortunately, her name came immediately to mind and I called it out. She said she thought “Away From Her” should be seen by everyone over the age of 37. I thought to myself, well, maybe over 50. We all fear the effects of aging and being inflicted with the terrible disease of Alzheimer’s. This movie is a good primer and lovingly done.
I saw the picture at the Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema on Houston Street which is a lovely theater.
“Waitress” (+)
I went to see this movie after reading Joe Morgenstern’s review in The Wall Street Journal. He wrote, “The writer-director Adrienne Shelly, who died in New York City late last year at the age of 40, took such perishable ingredients as wit, daring, poignancy, whimsy and romance, added passionate feelings plus the constant possibility of joy, decorated her one-of-a-kind production with pastel colors and created something close to perfection.” In my opinion, “Waitress” is worth seeing, but it is a good, not great, film.
The action unfolds in an unnamed Southern town and state. The central character is a waitress named Jenna (Keri Russell) who bakes delicious pies, a gift she acquired from her mother. Jenna is in a loveless marriage with Earl (Jeremy Sisto) who occasionally beats her. Adding to her marital woes is the fact that she is pregnant with his child. Sisto, who played Brenda’s manic-depressive brother in the HBO series “Six Feet Under,” does a good job in this film in a somewhat similar role.
Jenna’s two close friends are waitresses in the same restaurant: Dawn (Adrienne Shelly) and Becky (Cheryl Hines). Shelly portrays a woman with a severe inferiority complex who longs for a boyfriend. Hines is a gifted actress who plays the role of Larry David’s wife on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” She does a good job in “Waitress,” but overplays her role to some extent. The interaction among the three women is a delight. Their sexual escapades are interesting and novel in the case of Jenna who has an affair with her young, handsome obstetrician, Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion).
So why didn’t this movie, half reality and half fantasy, live up to my expectations? Jnna’s trials and tribulations never gripped me as intensely as they should have. It may be that other reviewers knew the writer and director of the movie, Adrienne Shelly, who also plays the role of the waitress Dawn. Understandably, they may have been affected by the fact that she was viciously murdered not long ago in her Greenwich Village office/apartment. “Waitress” is several cuts above most movies,but it is not top notch. I recommend that you see it anyway. It showed Adrienne Shelly’s enormous talent. Her career was just beginning and her potential will sadly never be realized.
HS: The movie paid great attention to Jenna’s unique talent —combining unlikely ingredients to bake into delicious pies. Although the picture stimulated the salivary glands, the concession fare was so unappealing that we saved our appetites for dinner. By the way, I thought Andy Griffin was really good as Joe, the owner of the diner.
