MovieChat Forums > Still Alice (2015) Discussion > Did them being rich help or hinder this ...

Did them being rich help or hinder this story?

posted 10 years ago by Intothenightalone
64 replies | jump to latest

Movies are about struggle and conflict, and them having lots of money, nice beach houses, expensive tastes etc made it sorta less engaging. Don't get me wrong, I liked their lifestyle, but storytelling is about people who are in conflict with their world.

Their money made things a lot more "comfortable". Cellphones to leave reminders. Expensive doctors. Maids. Imacs to leave death messages/communicate with child.

I felt like I wanted some subplot about the money... maybe he's about to go bust and needs her to keep working. Maybe they want the daughter to give up on acting and help out, like the others are secretly doing (perhaps).

It could have been used as a device to talk about the fact that even "rich people" live paycheck to paycheck and being destitute is often only an illness away.

[–] Yorick_Brown 9 years ago

It did neither.

A poverty subplot would have distracted from the story about struggling with such a terrible illness.

When the stars are the only things we share
Will you be there?

-Benjamin Francis Leftwich

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[–] derfball 9 years ago

You wouldn't have watched it if it was about a poor bag lady. It's the liberal bias, fantasy -- nice home(s), great careers, beautiful kids, academic healthcare benefits; we all have that, don't we? But, yeah, you can still lose it all. If it was about a bag lady, or a typical single 'homemaker' struggling to pay her bills, too depressing. At least the libs have provided Obamacare for the rest of us poor folks! I am surprised they didn't figure out a way to blame conservatives.

[–] larpine-225-371665 9 years ago

storytelling is about people who are in conflict with their world??

Eight years of college, elevation to an accomplished and esteem academic and losing your job because you have a disease isn't in conflict with the world?

Rich or poor, we all die and the greatest challenges we face along the way, no amount of money will solve.

All things being relative, I never saw them as rich and in truth, strapped would be a better definition, especially after the loss of Alice's career and references are make to this during the film.

Their character's home parallels every urban academic I've ever known, in that they live in high value communities, but they all purchased them after they're first graduate degree when the market's were far less developed and have lived in them twenty to thirty years or more.

I saw both homes to be dated in need of renovations, but they were probably foregoing to financing their children's educations.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] The-Musicscope 9 years ago

Alice and her husband were rich, but they were the 'right' kind of rich. They weren't really the kind of rich people you had the right to be too jealous of, because they earned it all through their studies and hard work. If Alice was a spoiled socialite, maybe it would've hurt the story, but she wasn't. She made the right choices in her life and earned every dime.

It didn't really help or hinder the story for me either way, but if I really thought about it, it could've helped a little, because all the smarts, success, and yes, money that Alice had couldn't stop her disease, and it could serve the viewer a reality check that these sorts of diseases, cancer, Alzheimer etc. are non-discriminatory.

Har ring molassis abounding
Common lap kitch sardin a poor floundin.

[–] sabar-1 9 years ago

I think they got the point across. I will have to say that they emphasized her "intellect "
and I find it no less tragic for a poor uneducated woman to go thru this. In fact, I know a few and you are correct that it's probably easier to deal with if you have resources.

🐈 Rachel