KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Families in the Kansas City area affected by Alzheimer’s disease and awaiting the release of the new movie “Still Alice” will soon be able to see the film near their homes.
“Still Alice” starring Julianne Moore opened in select theaters around the country on January 16. It comes to the Kansas City area on February 13, showing at the AMC Studio 30, AMC Barrywoods 24, AMC Independence Commons 20, AMC Town Center 20, Cinemark Palace on the Plaza and the Leawood Theater.
More than five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, but Hollywood has been reluctant to devote screen time to this difficult subject matter.
Moore has already won the Golden Globe, the Screen Actors Guild award and the Critics’ Choice award for her riveting performance of Alice, a middle-aged college professor suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s. She’s the odds-on favorite to take home the Oscar on February 22.
“Still Alice” is based on Lisa Genova’s popular 2007 novel and was written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. Independently produced, the movie was picked up by Sony Classics, the division of Sony Pictures Entertainment that handles independent and specialty releases, as well as documentaries and foreign films. While filmed on a modest budget, “Still Alice” has an impressive cast that also includes Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart and Kate Bosworth.
Moore has been vocal about the difficulties in bringing the subject matter to the big screen and hopes the film will raise awareness of the disease. In her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, she thanked, “the filmmakers, who in the middle of their own crisis with a degenerative disease, ALS, decided to make the movie because they wanted to celebrate who we are and what we value…and who we love.”
When accepting the Critics’ Choice award, Moore was quick to recognize the people afflicted with the disease who helped inspire her character.
“I want to thank all of the women I spoke to who are living with Alzheimer’s disease, The are truly, truly amazing and I want to thank them for their time and their generosity and sharing their experience. I really hope that I did you justice. And I want to give a special shout-out to my friend Sandy Oltz, my red-headed sister who has been living with Alzheimer’s for the last three years.”
Moore and the filmmakers have joined forces with the Alzheimer’s Association on a program called the “My Brain Movement.” Its mission statement calls on “…one million women to use their amazing brains to help wipe out Alzheimer’s disease–one of the greatest threats to women’s health.”
Reporter/author Maria Shriver, an executive producer on the film, is also involved with “My Brain Movement.” Shriver’s father, the late American statesman Sargent Shriver, was an Alzheimer’s sufferer. More information on the “My Brain Movement” is available at www.mybrain.alz.org.
