Week 9: Still Alice
Still Alice is a beautifully written movie that encompasses an intelligent and successful woman who had a dream life many want to achieve goes through a growling and despair deterioration due to Alzheimer's disease. The movie touched my heart in terms of how strong I could connect to the main character, Alice and how her illness took over her life.
In my opinion, this movie is a great awareness movie for Alzheimer's disease. It shows how the family goes through grief where Alice's husband, especially through the process of saying goodbye to the real 'Alice'. Without her personality and memories, the question of who she was became a big issue. Is Alice still Alice if she acts completely different now and cannot remember anything? She basically only lived to survive. Therefore not saying I would leave her just like her husband did, but I understood why it was tough for her husband until it came to a point where he had to let go and move on.
Somehow, at a certain point in life, people change. Some, to a better person and some not. In my personal experience, losing Alice although is a painful experience for her husband, it is an act of selfishness, but logical since he has a lot more to offer in the world, especially his career and Alice was a barrier for him. Previously, I had always been skeptic about people leaving other people just because the other did not have any benefit to offer. However, this movie makes me realize that we are all just humans. Humans do things to thrive and survive in their environment, that is just how the world works. Altruism, however, is a personal choice of the minority in this world. Honestly, if altruism was in the majority society, a lot of world issues would have been solved already. Hence, this movie portrayed life in a sense that nothing lasts forever and all good things come to an end.
Moreover, I understood how frustrated and in denial Alice was with her disease. Having to be successful with her own effort is the biggest achievement one could get. Then, having it all be taken away so early, I could see how Alice grief through the stages of grief. This somehow reminded me of my own experience of losing a person that meant a lot to me and having people sympathize me to a point where they think I am incompetent of doing work, just because I am sad. Although it is an entirely different experience, in my opinion, the fundamental feelings that are involved in my experience and Alice's are about the same.
It was hard to get people to understand what I felt, and harder to get people to let me have my moment of grief and move on at my own pace. This could be because people assume that due to my sadness, all I need is positivity. Sometimes, it is good to have a moment of grief and cry over things. However, when I cry, they would think that I am not able to do work with full commitment, thus this frustrates me because I know well that I can, but having people to cut me off, makes me feel incompetent, being judged and at some point insecure to a point where I actually believe their words.Thus, I could understand and relate to Alice well in this movie.
All in all, I think the actors did a great acting job which touched the viewer's heart and I would always be able to feel Alice's pain regardless of how many times I watch this movie.
In my opinion, this movie is a great awareness movie for Alzheimer's disease. It shows how the family goes through grief where Alice's husband, especially through the process of saying goodbye to the real 'Alice'. Without her personality and memories, the question of who she was became a big issue. Is Alice still Alice if she acts completely different now and cannot remember anything? She basically only lived to survive. Therefore not saying I would leave her just like her husband did, but I understood why it was tough for her husband until it came to a point where he had to let go and move on.
Somehow, at a certain point in life, people change. Some, to a better person and some not. In my personal experience, losing Alice although is a painful experience for her husband, it is an act of selfishness, but logical since he has a lot more to offer in the world, especially his career and Alice was a barrier for him. Previously, I had always been skeptic about people leaving other people just because the other did not have any benefit to offer. However, this movie makes me realize that we are all just humans. Humans do things to thrive and survive in their environment, that is just how the world works. Altruism, however, is a personal choice of the minority in this world. Honestly, if altruism was in the majority society, a lot of world issues would have been solved already. Hence, this movie portrayed life in a sense that nothing lasts forever and all good things come to an end.
Moreover, I understood how frustrated and in denial Alice was with her disease. Having to be successful with her own effort is the biggest achievement one could get. Then, having it all be taken away so early, I could see how Alice grief through the stages of grief. This somehow reminded me of my own experience of losing a person that meant a lot to me and having people sympathize me to a point where they think I am incompetent of doing work, just because I am sad. Although it is an entirely different experience, in my opinion, the fundamental feelings that are involved in my experience and Alice's are about the same.
It was hard to get people to understand what I felt, and harder to get people to let me have my moment of grief and move on at my own pace. This could be because people assume that due to my sadness, all I need is positivity. Sometimes, it is good to have a moment of grief and cry over things. However, when I cry, they would think that I am not able to do work with full commitment, thus this frustrates me because I know well that I can, but having people to cut me off, makes me feel incompetent, being judged and at some point insecure to a point where I actually believe their words.Thus, I could understand and relate to Alice well in this movie.
All in all, I think the actors did a great acting job which touched the viewer's heart and I would always be able to feel Alice's pain regardless of how many times I watch this movie.
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