Still Alice is increasingly immersive, with dynamic camerawork and layered soundscapes replicating Alice’s perceptions for the audience, and conveying her alarmingly rapid decline.

In comparison, Baldwin’s John is stunningly bland, though Bosworth excels herself despite an underwritten role. Moore eclipses the film’s overall quality, her gradual transformation highlighted when Alice watches a video of her younger self. The two Moores sharing the screen are almost irreconcilable.

After Alice, Lydia (Stewart) is the best-realised character, and the compelling nature of her scenes with Moore suggest exclusive focus on this relationship could have made for a superior film.

Much from Genova’s novel is dialled down: academics, characters’ flaws, and emotional intensity. Intellectually, the sadness is undeniable, but Still Alice only rarely fulfils its potential for moving the viewer.

RATING: 3/5

INFORMATION

CAST: Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish

DIRECTOR: Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland

WRITERS: Richard Glatzer (screenplay), Lisa Genova (novel)

SYNPOSIS: A linguistics professor (Moore) and her family find their bonds tested when she is diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease.