Still Alice

A distinguished Columbia University linguistics professor (Julianne Moore) finds herself suddenly forgetting simple words, getting lost on her own campus and suffering other baffling lapses. At the age of 50, she is developing early-onset Alzheimer’s—worse yet, it’s hereditary, and she may have passed it on to her adult children (Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, Kristen Stewart). Writer-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland (adapting Lisa Genova’s novel) avoid the weepy melodrama of disease-of-the-week TV movies in favor of low-key naturalism, anchored by Moore’s subtle, textured performance and strong support from her screen family (including Alec Baldwin as her loving but flawed husband). It’s a quietly harrowing portrait of a family losing the woman they know—and a woman losing herself.