Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Away from Her

Universal acclaim
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 65 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Romance
Written by:
Sarah Polley
Alice Munro (short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain)
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 4, 2007
DVD: September 11, 2007
Running Time: 110 minutes, Color
Origin: Canada
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Julie Christie, Michael Murphy, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Kristen Thomson, Wendy Crewson, Alberta Watson, Thomas Hauff, and Katie Boland
This beautiful yet unconventional story of a couple coming to grips with the onset of memory loss is adapted from celebrated author Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain." (Lionsgate)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
One of the most remarkable and moving love stories the movies have recently given us.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Extraordinary--delicate, seriously disturbing, and lovely.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
The movie, Polley's feature début, is a small-scale triumph that could herald a great career.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A phantom of a movie whose beautiful flakes fall into the deep crevices of memory long after the seasons change.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
A heartbreaking elegy to mature love that honors the lovers and the long, neurodegenerative tango that is their last.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
There's nothing messy or unkempt about the beautifully, quietly heartbreaking story of unconditional love and emotional sacrifice.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A feature film that's often astringent on the surface, yet deeply and memorably stirring.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
What Away From Her achieves is quite admirable-- a low-key, intelligent setting for performances marked by those same qualities.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Jeremy Mathews
Julie Christie gives a fabulous performance of mysterious, unclear depth as Fiona.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Munro's stark lily needed none of this gilding.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
A tender movie about a poignant and difficult subject.
Read Full Review >Empire Olly Richards
It's Sarah Polley through and through: slightly too glum for its own good, but reeking of quality and feeling.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 65 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
avery c gave it a10:
This is a minor masterpiece. This isn't a film about illness. It's a film about love and a film about, what Proust always knew to be, the great tragedy of forgetting. What does the player king in 'Hamlet' say? "Memory is but the slave of passion?". It's about how people sometime trade love for the solace of similarity. It's about the fact that sometimes the most loving gesture one can make is to let the other go. Regardless of how much you can bench or how straight you drink your Maker's, if you've recently left a long, troubled relationship, you will cry and cry. Nobody knows how to say goodbye.
John A gave it an8:
'Away From Her' is not so subtle as it is heartbreaking.
Anthony N gave it a2:
This is a very unrealistic portrayal of Alzheimer's disease, cruel to those that have it. There is no poetry in going senile, and this film is inaccurate sentimental tosh. Great acting, great music, great photoraphy, but totally wrong, wrong, wrong about what dementia is about.
Patricia M. gave it a10:
This is a stunning movie, beautifully filmed, replete with a superb cast, bittersweet undertones, and quiet victories. The script builds nicely on the Alice Munro story with some lovely additions resulting in first rate movie making.
Franky P. gave it a9:
Profoundly beautiful and moving.
Blake J gave it an8:
A movie that knows what it is trying to get across and gets it across. A feat that not very many movies these days accomplish. Julie Christie is amazing...her portrayal of Fiona is dead on, a definite front-runner for the Best Actress Oscar come Feb. A movie so sad I never want to watch it again but I will never forget it. Sarah Polley is a new voice and force to be reckoned with.
Drew E. gave it a10:
This incredibly deeply perceptive depiction of the agony and mystery of one of life's most cruel twists of fate is brilliantly realized by director and cast .It is horrifying yet uplifting in its glowing humanity, especially realized by the performances of Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent....I won't get away from her or him or this film for a very very long time.
