Still Alice

After surviving an extremely busy first week of semester two, I decided to spend my Friday evening (after a decent stint in the library) curled up in bed watching a film. Whilst everyone was out enjoying refreshers (the post-January exams version of freshers), I was in the midst of probably the most wild Friday night I’ll be having this semester, looking at the amount of work I have in store. I’d been intending to watch Still Alice for a while, but I’m prone to shedding tears at such films so I had been saving it for an evening like this. Tears were shed.

Julianne Moore plays Alice, a linguistic professor at Columbia University, who is diagnosed with early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease, aged 50. Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease which initially affects short-term memory. It is progressive and so worsens over time, with the gradual introduction of symptoms such as becoming disoriented, difficulties with language and the loss of bodily functions. I was impressed with the scientific detail given in the film; familial Alzheimer’s is hereditary so the option for genetic screening is available, to identify whether a carrier’s children may have the causative gene. This was addressed and explained clearly. For this role, Moore won an array of awards, including a BAFTA, an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, deservingly so. This is a film I’d highly recommend, just make sure you have the tissues ready.

With semester two in full swing I am of course extremely busy writing my dissertation, attending lectures, starting various pieces of coursework and sending off yet more applications. We also have a dance competition coming up in a couple of weeks, so dancing rehearsals are pretty full on at the minute to get the routines finished and polished. Busy, busy, busy!

Daisy x