Away from Her

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

One of the most remarkable and moving love stories the movies have recently given us.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Rarely has love at any age been depicted so honestly on screen. For such a fully realized portrait to be created by a 28-year-old first-time director is even more remarkable.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

For a movie about the importance of memory, Away From Her is appropriately sophisticated in its treatment of time. Polley has broken the chronological story into three sections of unequal length and woven them together, approximating our own mercurial journeys through the past.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

To say it is about a debilitating disease is as reductive as saying "Little Miss Sunshine" is about a beauty pageant. Both are intimate stories of family ties that bind but sometimes also choke.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Extraordinary--delicate, seriously disturbing, and lovely.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Anyone who could read Munro’s original story and think they could make a film of it, and then make a great film, deserves a certain awe.

The New Yorker David Denby

The movie, Polley's feature début, is a small-scale triumph that could herald a great career.

Newsweek David Ansen

For anyone who grew up worshiping at the shrine of Julie Christie, the notion that she could be playing a white-haired woman drifting into senility is a jolt to the system. But her radiance, beauty and talent are undiminished: she's hauntingly, heartbreakingly good.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

It's a precociously assured and mature work, at once humble and bold, that keeps faith with Munro's precise, graceful prose while tailoring its linear progression into shapely cinematic form.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Poignant, wise and unafraid -- just the sort of film for a young person, or any person, for that matter, to make.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

I can't remember the last time the movies yielded up a love story so painful, so tender and so true.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A phantom of a movie whose beautiful flakes fall into the deep crevices of memory long after the seasons change.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

With a tranquil fearlessness, it goes beyond the death of memory, to see what might be found in the unexplored country beyond. The answer is both frightening and comforting: More love. Unspecified love. Universal love.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

As this intimate, beautifully observed film unfolds, you realize that the story's themes -- the nature of love, the role of sex in relationships and the ways in which we learn to make peace with our guilty consciences -- are relevant no matter what age you happen to be.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

A heartbreaking elegy to mature love that honors the lovers and the long, neurodegenerative tango that is their last.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A director needs to know how to pace the tale, where to place the camera, how to draw out a shy actor or get out of the way of a strong one. Those skills are rarer than you'd think. Sarah Polley, who never wrote or directed a feature film before Away From Her, has them all.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A sad and sometimes funny tale of Alzheimer's, love and loss.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

A film rich in paradoxes. Much of the film's style is dreamy, from the snow-covered Ontario landscapes suggestive of a blanket of forgetfulness, to Julie Christie's pale, intoxicating beauty, to the ambient musical score.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Julie Christie is simply astounding as a woman slipping into the ravages of Alzheimer's in Sarah Polley's deeply affecting and artfully crafted Away From Her.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Even those who've long noted Polley's intelligence on screen will be amazed by the perception she displays as a filmmaker.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Does the finest job of any film in painting a believable portrait of aging, capturing the sadness, confusion, anxiety and defiance of the early stages of dementia.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

All the acting is first-rate -- Dukakis gives major dimensions to a supporting role. And Christie, a Sixties screen goddess in "Darling" and "Doctor Zhivago," shows that her spirit and grace are eternal. She's a beauty. So is the movie.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Given the subject, the movie is too romanticized, and Christie's eyes remain too sharp here to convincingly convey someone whose memory is fast slipping away. Much of it is powerful anyway.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Has its heartbreaking moments and its surprise giggles, particularly thanks to Ron Hewat's minor role as a former hockey play-by-play announcer now narrating his nursing-home life.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

There's nothing messy or unkempt about the beautifully, quietly heartbreaking story of unconditional love and emotional sacrifice.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

A quiet, heartfelt story of love and loss.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A feature film that's often astringent on the surface, yet deeply and memorably stirring.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Polley captures the brisk, cheerful fascism of nursing-home existence with merciless clarity; if you've visited a parent or grandparent in one of those places, you may want to laugh and cry in the same moment.

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

The pain of watching a spouse succumb to Alzheimer's is given a particularly deep and sensitive treatment in Away From Her.

Variety Dennis Harvey

What Away From Her achieves is quite admirable-- a low-key, intelligent setting for performances marked by those same qualities.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

Julie Christie gives a fabulous performance of mysterious, unclear depth as Fiona.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Away From Her is a twilight-of-life love story, one that harshly demolishes our romantic notions of love and loyalty, then replaces them with something deeper and, finally, more consoling.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Munro's stark lily needed none of this gilding.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The actors are all perfect and yet not. Christie, most obviously, is simply too gorgeous, even when she's meant to be rattled and lost; Pinsent is too credibly stolid; Dukakis never vanquishes an impression of sourness. These may be quibbles, but they add up.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A tender movie about a poignant and difficult subject.

Empire Olly Richards

It's Sarah Polley through and through: slightly too glum for its own good, but reeking of quality and feeling.