Still Alice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Still Alice - Essay Example Thus, one of the first scenes shows the main character giving a lecture about her work. This is clearly a big honor for everyone who is present. However, during the lecture, Alice (Julianne Moore) forgets a word. This is rather surprising for such a smart woman as she. So, to win some time she jokes about having an extra glass of champagne. However, even after several seconds she can not remember the necessary word; so, she uses a synonym: the word she forgot was lexicon and she said word stock. This is quite an important scene as it shows that Alice is still able to use the majority of her mental resources and can fight the early symptoms. Several times during the movie Alice is seen playing a mobile application that is called Words with friends. This element serves several significant functions. First of all, it situates Alice in the environment of ‘normal’ people who are able to use their brain to its fullest to play abstract games. Later in the movie she tells her daughter that she has developed an obsession with this game. One might see a considerable amount of irony here since as her disease progresses, she will no longer be able to carry on what she liked a lot. In other words, other people who did not use their brain so much should not feel such a tragedy in the disease that she was diagnosed with. Finally, this very game might also be seen as a measurement of her mental potential. Thus, in the very beginning of the movie Alice is seen forming a word Hadj (Islamic ritual pilgrimage). There is no doubt that few people who are not Muslims know this word. This shows that Alice is quite intelligent. Ho wever, at the end of the film the best word she is able to come up with in the game is tone. This might be regarded as a clear sign of her mental degradation. During the first interview of neurologist, the latter asks Alice about her family. She reveals that her