By far the best film I screened at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival was Sarah Polley’s feature film directing debut, Away from Her, which seems destined for Oscar and Genie glory, not to mention the many rave reviews that will undoubtedly pour in from critics around North America. One of the great actresses of her generation, Polley has stepped behind the camera before for short films, also screened at the Toronto Film Festival, but in making the jump to a full blown feature film she demonstrates a maturity far beyond her years as a filmmaker and a brilliance that is quite shocking. While there was never any doubt she possessed talent, this sort of talent is astounding to behold.

   The film is based on the Alice Munro short story The Bear Went Over the Mountain, which Polley read on a flight home from Iceland making the decision to adapt the work into a screenplay. She wrote the script and then approached Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent to portray one of the characters, then went after Julie Christie for the other. Though not initially wanting to do a film, Christie gave in because she states “she did not anyone else to have the chance of working with Polley for the first time”. Good call.

   The film deals beautifully with the manner in which a retired couple, married for forty four years deal with the impact of Fiona (Christie) being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the first early signs of the disease, which quickly progress from forgetting where the pots and pans go to forgetting her way home from cross country skiing. Grant (Pinsent) is perfectly prepared to take care of her, but Fiona will have nothing to do with that, choosing instead to movie into a long term care facility much against Grant’s wishes. Much to his horror he learns that they do not allow contact with the new arrival for the first thirty days of their stay. When that time elapses he returns to find Fiona no longer remembers that they are married, and she is paying a great deal of attention to another patient, Aubrey (Michael Murphy) who is deeply threatened by Grant. On one hand Grant does not know if the lack of memory is the disease or Fiona’s way of punishing him for past affairs when he was teaching. Grant visits her daily hoping to jog her memory and begins to be accepting of this new status, until Marian (Olympia Dukakis), Aubrey’s  wife takes him home much to the anguish of Fiona who is utterly lost without him. Visiting Marian, Grant and she strike a friendship and eventually embark on an affair, though Marian never kids herself into thinking Grant loves her, knowing that he is forever tied to Fiona. He finally decides to make the ultimate sacrifice for Fiona and asks Marian to allow Aubrey to return to the hospital hoping to bring Fiona out of her deep depression. This act of pure love has a greater impact than Grant realizes.

   Julie Christie is simply luminous in this role, giving what I think is by far the finest performance of her long and impressive career. We can see the lights fading in her eyes, the memory being taken away by invisible forces and the pain it causes her to lose things that were once second nature to her. Through this nightmare she manages to keep her humour, which must be what allows her to deal so openly with what is happening to her.

   Pinsent, not widely known outside of Canada, is a national treasure and delivers one of the finest performances of his career. The hurt and pain that are etched on his face when he realizes his wife no longer knows him is heartbreaking. From the discussions of their past we get the sense that Fiona made many sacrifices for him, and that perhaps more often than not he was a selfish man. For the first time in his life he looks beyond himself and takes care of her recognizing how deeply he truly does love her. Pinsent earned high praise from no less than Kevin Spacey while working together on The Shipping News (2001), so perhaps late in his career he will be embraced in the United States as the major talent he has always been. Would it not be wonderful if he was nominated for an Oscar?

   Both performers deserve Academy Award attention next year and seem shoo-ins for the Genie Awards, Canada’s film awards. Certainly the film was the talk of the festival, 2006.

   Polley creates a gentle, subtle film of quiet, but overwhelming power that will shake those who see it to their very foundation. This is life, and sometimes life is hard and unfair, and there is no turning back from what life throws at us, which she makes most clear in this fine piece of work. She is fearless in showing that old people are still sexual beings, still affectionate and lust after one another which was refreshing because it is so true!! Polley reflected life in her film, truth on such an impressive scale, that her work must be considered art. Hopefully she will earn herself an Academy Awards nomination for best director, however a Genie Award seems clinched.

   How often do we gripe about the state of Canadian cinema? Our national cinema is often dubious at best because seeing Canadian films has become very difficult. However here is one that transcends everything else out there right now, and in my opinion will be hard pressed to beat out as best picture of the year. Had Away from Her been released last year it would have topped my ten best list, knocking off The Departed (2006) from no less than Martin Scorsese. A brilliant, deeply moving film about love and how sometimes we must give up what we love best for them.