Away from Her is a 2006 Canadian independent drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley and starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent.
Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy, Wendy Crewson, Alberta Watson, and Kristen Thomson are featured in supporting roles.
The feature film directorial debut of Polley, it is based on Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain", from the 2001 collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage.
The film received two nominations at the 80th Academy Awards: Best Actress (for Christie) and Best Adapted Screenplay (for Polley).
When she feels she is becoming a risk to herself, Fiona decides to check into a nursing home, where one of the rules is that a patient cannot have any visitors for the first 30 days, in order to "adjust".
When the 30-day period ends, Grant goes to visit his wife again, only to find she has forgotten him, and turned her affections to Aubrey, a mute man in a wheelchair who has become her "coping partner" in the facility.
Sarah Polley read the short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" in The New Yorker when she was on a flight from working on Hal Hartley's No Such Thing in Iceland.
[16] Roger Ebert awarded it four stars, calling the greatest of the films about Alzheimer's of the early 21st century, and "a heartbreaking masterpiece".
[17] Peter Bradshaw, writing in The Guardian, found the film smart and said this is possibly Christie's greatest performance.
[18] Dave Calhoun of Time Out said the film stood out for the idea that Fiona's Alzheimer's is punishment for Gordon's adulteries.
[19] Variety's Dennis Harvey complimented it for "a low-key, intelligent setting for performances marked by those same qualities", singling out Pinsent and Christie.
[20] Stella Papamichael, writing for BBC, gave it five stars, praising it as " a low-key yet powerful and uplifting story of love renewed", and said Christie's performance was memorable.
[21][22][23][24] Word about possible Academy Award recognition for Away from Her began at the Toronto International Film Festival, and critics associations particularly recognized Julie Christie for her performance.