Mother of god, Sarah Polley is 28 years old. I feel like a coward.

Wow. Maybe I could have known when I saw Polley in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 19 years ago that she would grow up a beautiful woman.

Maybe I even, if my crystal ball had been very clear that day, could have guessed she would become a director and writer of her own films.

But there is no way on green earth I could have known she would make a film like Away From Her. Polley's direction is sure handed, the script (based on a short story by Alice Munro) is witty and emotional, and the performances are beautiful from top to bottom.

I mean that quite literally. Julie Christie and her upfront co-stars have drawn praise, and rightly so. There's scarcely a false moment to be found from them, except those whose characters are choosing to be false.

But there's also a phenomenal performance by a low-billed young woman named Nina Dobrev (of Bulgarian descent) who only has one scene--plus one deleted from the main film. Her face is new to me, but apparently she's an alumnus of Canada's long-lived Degrassi dramas.

(I need to explain the above photos-Dobrev is the woman at left, at right is an actress named Emmanuelle Chriqui, who has nothing to do with this film. It's just that the best image I found of Dobrev was on this "strange resemblance" blog.

Personally I don't think there is much of a resemblance, strange or otherwise.)



If I were a Canadian, this movie would make me proud.

Come to think of it, I’m a writer and it does anyway.