Why 'Still Alice' is about you
March 12, 2015
By Ai-jen Poo
Julianne Moore won an Academy Award for her
heart-wrenching performance in "Still Alice," in which she plays a
linguistics professor with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Much has been written about her characterization of a
woman struggling with the disease. But there's another reason the performance
hits home for millions of Americans, whether they are grappling with
Alzheimer's or not. The late Richard Glatzer, who co-directed the film with
Wash Westmoreland, named it: "Still Alice
As the audience journeys with Alice
and her family from diagnosis to acceptance and adaptation, we watch her
husband and three children struggle to make sense of the changes in Alice
The changes in these relationships -- between husband and
wife, and mother and child -- yield some of the most provocative, brutal and
poignant moments of the film. The caregiving relationship is never simple, but
the "presence of being" it requires always offers an opportunity for
raw honesty and transformation -- both for the individuals involved and the
relationship itself. And, in the film, family members grow to become a crucial,
if imperfect, circle of care.
This story is familiar to more and more Americans, young
and old. Like so many families, Alice
I recognize their confusion and pain all too well. After
my grandfather's vision deteriorated and his health failed in other ways, my
father was unable to find him appropriate home-care support. He had to place
him in a nearby nursing home, against my grandfather's wishes. There he slept
in a dark room with half a dozen other people, some completely still, others
wailing with pain and suffering.
It smelled of mold and illness. He didn't sleep or eat
for days, and passed away just three months later. Even now, the memory of my
visits with him sends a chill down my spine. In my new book, "The Age of
Dignity," I explore the experiences of my family, families like Alice
Most families don't have a care plan in place, and more
importantly, we as a nation don't have a plan either. As a result, so many of
us are struggling: we are overwhelmed family caregivers, we often cannot afford
the long-term care option we need -- if we can even find it -- let alone enjoy
the time we have together. And we feel alone in this struggle.
But we are not.
In reality, 4 in
10 adults in America
As the baby boom generation ages, and health-care and
scientific advances extend our life expectancy by nearly 20 years, the very
nature of growing older is shifting. And polls show that more than 90% of older Americans want to live out their
elder years at home.
The key to addressing this cultural shift is to bravely
confront, embrace and place a new value on the caregiving relationship. Family
caregivers such as Alice's family members and professional caregivers like
Elena, who joins Alice's care circle later in the film, are critical to our
ability to live and age the way we desire, connected to our families and
communities until the end.
In his moving 2013
commencement speech to Syracuse University
With subtlety and realistic grace, the characters of
"Still Alice" reveal how the caregiving relationship, while never
easy, enhances and amplifies this universally attainable goal. And that in the
end, we should all strive to be replaced by love, and surrounded by care.
Structure of the Lead：
WHO-
WHAT-
WHY-
Keywords：
1. heart-wrenching 心臟，痛苦
2. grappling 擒拿
3. caregivers 護理人員
4. provocative挑釁
5. brutal 殘酷
6. poignant 淒美
7. makeshift 湊合的
8. navigating 導航
