MovieChat Forums > Still Alice (2015) Discussion > Huge Problem With This Movie

Huge Problem With This Movie

posted 9 years ago by IrisJ123
21 replies | jump to latest

Early on in this film, the older daughter, played by a "barely there" Kate Bosworth, finds out that she has inherited her mother's condition. This means that she has a 100% chance of also developing early-onset Alzheimer's. It is GOING to happen, period.

So as she is watching her mother's decline, she is also seeing her own future unfold right in front of her. Yet, aside from the ONE scene in which she reveals her test results over the phone, this horrific and extremely dramatic situation is never again acknowledged.

Bosworth's character instead just goes on to have her IVF twins and act like a clueless ice queen, instead of dealing in any way with the fact that she is going to go through EXACTLY what her mother is going through in the not too distant future. Her kids are going to have to watch their own mother decline, just as she is doing now. (So should she even be having kids, even though they were able to assure she would not pass the condition on to them through pre-natal testing?)

The implications are huge, and it would have been a really fascinating element to explore. Instead it is just improbably dropped. If they were going to do that, they just should have had all the kids' test results come in as negative. It's just way too heavy of an issue to dismiss in a film like this one. It ruins the movie, in my opinion.

All that said, I always love Julianne Moore, and I think she did her best here, although I would have liked to see more of the "before" so we could truly get an idea of the great intellect she had before her decline. The few scenes they show us don't really convey that at all, because the decline has already begun.

[–] mederomartinez-20002 9 years ago

So what's your suggestion? Stop living for something that's gonna happen in 20 plus years? Anne could get run over by a car too, let's keep her from having children in case she dies.

If anything, They're going to prepare the kids for that, doesn't mean it won't be painful, but it'll be different. After all, if they (Alice kids) could go on with their lives after this tragedy, why won't Anne's? Anne and her husband missing out on what for some people might be the greatest thing in life because of this terrible disease seems horrible to me.

Previously known as college dropout kid.

[–] david_hokey_16 9 years ago

It's not a problem at all because the daughter knows her future is inevitable. There's nothing she can do about it, so why should she look to the future with fear rather than live her life in the present? Different people deal with things differently. She already had so many plans she was working on, and she refuses to let her work falter because of something she can't stop that won't occur for many years. I'm sure she'd rather live in the moment and help her mother than throw a pity party for herself.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] IrisJ123 8 years ago

Yeah, there was just pretty much NO acknowledgment of that serious bombshell revelation. Anna was told there was a 100% chance she is going to end up exactly like her mother, unless there is some miraculous cure in the next decade or two.

That's HUGE. Completely life-changing information. Yet you see almost no reaction to it or discussion of it.

I get that the movie was supposed to be showing us Alice's view most of the time, but this still felt like such a glaring omission.

[–] idca 8 years ago

So as she is watching her mother's decline, she is also seeing her own future unfold right in front of her.

This is why I was a little suprised we didn't see more of her. I thought it would make sense for her character to be the one the most involved in taking care of her mother. At the same time, I guess she had a lot to do with her babies and that could explain her absence. Also, in situations like this I can imagine that many just can't deal and pretend nothing's wrong.

[–] IrisJ123 8 years ago

If they weren't going to deal with the fallout that comes from a huge disclosure such as this, they should have just not added this storyline. They could have had all if the kids decide not to take the test so it would remain a mystery (that's what the youngest daughter did -- the whole time she is caring for her mom, you know it is possible she is also affected, but you are not sure).

But to feature this HUGE bit of information and then have almost no reaction to it throughout the movie was just -- a bad move.

[–] Lucky456 8 years ago

I dunno. I know people who had to get tested for Huntington's and others for early onset Alzheimer's, and neither of them got emotional or even really said anything about it. Everyone else freaked out and cried and did the whole "what if" (including me) but they were both stoic. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe there's something else that happens when you are watching your future unfold before your eyes. Perhaps you just want to go on living without dwelling on it for the next 20 years...because the alternative is?? To stop living? To kill yourself? To be sad every day for the rest of your life?
Also, in the movie they said they can test the embryos for the genetic mutation, so that may explain why Anna had the twins anyway.

[–] hppg 8 years ago

Another perspective, I only just thought maybe she planned to continue to have the kids to have someone to care for her - otherwise it'd be even scarier. Horrible but then it's not a nice thought either way is it?!