If you are looking to see the second-best performance (nobody is going to be able to touch Julianne Moore in Still Alice) by an actress in 2014, check out Daniel Barnz’s (Won’t Back Down, Phoebe In Wonderland). While the movie might not wow you, the performance of Jennifer Aniston (The Good Girl, Rock Star) absolutely will. Nearly unrecognizable, the one-time Friend is a physical and emotional wreck throughout the movie. Playing Claire, a mother who lost her young son in an automobile accident while accruing numerous injuries to her legs, arm, back, and face that have forced her to become addicted to pain killers, Aniston performs her career. I have yet to see two of the five nominees for Best Actress (Moore and Marion Cottilard – Two Days, One Night). But I will say that Aniston’s performance does rival Reese Witherspoon (Wild), Rosemund Pike (Gone Girl), and Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything). I’ll give Cottilard the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe there were six great performances for five spots. However, if I were voting, Aniston would have got my vote over Jones (even though I thought Jones was great). I will explain why in the paragraphs below.

First of all, this movie is not for everyone. It is depressing (which I love) and uneven (which I don’t like). There will be many filmgoers who, 30 minutes into the movie, begin to list all of the other films they could be watching. I was not one of those people, but that was because I didn’t have a list. I had seen all of those other movies that I could have watched (though, to be honest, the second viewing of American Sniper is in store for me before it leaves the theaters). I would not say that the movie is slow, but not a lot happens. Perhaps the slowness isn’t as apparent because of its relatively short length (98 minutes). But if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know that my favorite type of movies as I near the age of 40 are character-driven movies. And this was undoubtedly one of those. Aniston’s Claire never leaves the screen.

The central premise of this movie is how Claire will be able to or not be able to overcome the tragedy in her life. I don’t believe we know exactly how long it has been since she was struck in the car accident, but I think it’s fair to assume it’s been a little over a year or so. We know that at that time, she spent a great deal of time recovering in the hospital, separating from her husband, the likable Jason (Chris Messina – Argo, Vicky Cristina Barcelona). During the time between her horrific accident that left her with massive scars all over her body and injuries that forced her to lay on her back each time she traveled in a motor vehicle. Claire is in a support group for people dealing with chronic pain. One of the members of that group, a woman named Nina (Anna Kendrick – Up In the Air, 50/50), recently committed suicide by jumping off the top of a highway overpass. One of the movie’s first scenes shows the support group talking about Nina, and though this scene offers some of the black cuff comedy by Claire, we can tell very early on that we are in for a heavy-hitter of a movie. It brings up an interesting point, though, and further emphasizes the film’s unevenness. There is a little too much black comedy on the part of Claire. If she is depressed as she is supposed to be (and we are talking depression to the depths), then I don’t think she would offer humor. I think she might be sarcastic at times, but funny? No. Now the few times there is something humorous, it’s certainly not laugh-out-loud funny. I wouldn’t even say that anything she said would bring a chuckle. But the intent was there, and I wish there hadn’t been those scenes.

On the other end of the spectrum, I did appreciate that Claire never went off the deep end in terms of just crying to cry and evoke that kind of emotion from the audience. This was an angry, despondent woman, utterly devoid of happiness and completely hooked on self-medicating through her prescription drugs. When she wasn’t meeting with her shrink or at physical therapy, she was planning on how she would take her own life. She has hallucinations featuring Nina where Nina encourages her to end her misery, even offering her ways to do it. And while she misses her son, it’s almost as if she does her best not to remember. There are no photos of him in her home. Instead, she tries to pan off his toys to whoever has young children and could use them. She still craves sex but has no interest in love. And while her body is scarred and bruised and a smile cannot find her face, she still is Jennifer Aniston, and she will have her list of suitors. Now while most of us think that it isn’t normal for a pair of 45-year-olds to engage in sex after one partner climbs up the side of the house and knocks on a bedroom window, that is what happens here. This is the stuff that some teenagers living in their parent’s house do, I suppose (I never had that opportunity in my youth). But in this movie, that’s what works. A man wants to have sex with her but knows she is in too much agony to go down and let him in, so he has to be creative in how he finds her. Now, as mentioned, Claire still craves the basic need of sex, but love is something that she thinks has left her forever. She doesn’t even want to look at her partner while the two engage in intercourse.

I think Aniston plays Claire with great care and precision. While this is probably not her best overall film, this is her most exceptional performance. She’s struggling to be. Sometimes we wonder if she wants to make it through this challenging time of her life. That’s because she doesn’t know. I can relate to her. When I began experiencing debilitating physical pain in my early 20s, I thought it would cripple me forever. Day after day, week after week, year after year, I couldn’t manage my pain. The thoughts of having to experience such physical misery for the next 50 years deflated me like nothing I had ever known. When I had to start walking off curbs differently or turning sharp corners while walking differently, I would get so upset and wonder what the next physical alternation that was going to derail my psyche was. When others could do pain-free, the same things that would cause me days, if not weeks, to recover free, I was filled with such an extreme sense of jealousy and thoughts of “Why me?” When this began to affect my emotional state, I knew I was in for a much more intense kind of hurt. And while I have figured out how to manage my pain 90-95% successfully, I still have awful days where my knees, hips, and back hurt. More so now, though, I have days of mental and emotional anxiety, fatigue, and preoccupation that seem to strike sometimes out of nowhere and leave none the better. Life has been extraordinarily difficult for me since about the age of 18, and I have done my best to manage it through various practices.

Relating this to the story is easy for me. At age 45, if this is the first time that Claire is going through this kind of awful physical pain and tumultuous mental anguish, it is understandable that she does not think there is an end in sight. I began viewing my life at age 35, which was different from age 25 because I knew that the physical and emotional pains would always play a massive part in my life but that they would come and go. I am an extremely active person when it comes to physical activity. Sure, I like to veg out a ton, but I am very competitive (not quite as much as I used to be, but it’s still there). I want to go out and be my best physical self. That used to occur through team sports (most notably basketball, soccer, flag football, etc.), but in recent years it has been through running and the other physical activities that I do to help me with my running. And when physical pain creeps in (through a race or wear and tear), sometimes, as difficult as it is, I must force myself to let my body rest and recover. Patience is a virtue that I have worked so hard at developing over the years. In terms of mental anguish, it sucks to be as insecure and sensitive as I am. And it is one of those things that I go to great lengths to hide from everyone, choosing to let my emotions flow through my poetry, short stories, and novels. But, again, comparing myself at age 35 to how I was at age 25, I know that whatever has me down will pass with time. Even when these events are some of the most challenging circumstances in the world to process (the death of a loved one or a devastating breakup are the two big ones for me), I know that, with time, the feelings of misery, despair, faithlessness, etc. will dissipate. Sometimes that period is much more extended than I want it to be, but it does pass. Sometimes I equate it now to an awful hangover. I haven’t had a bad hangover in many years (thank goodness and knock on wood simultaneously), but I remember the terrible ones and how all you can do is fight through them and know that it will pass with time. If these types of pains are new to Claire, how could she possibly believe they could pass? If the world she has known has crumbled before her eyes, and she doesn’t think she can get better, then why wouldn’t she wonder about suicide. Why wouldn’t she explore the possibilities and wonder how Nina dared to do it?

Aniston (and Barnz) did best by not trying to be overly sentimental with tears to have tears. Lengthy bouts of crying sure would stir the audience’s emotions, but that wasn’t how Claire was dealing with her depression. Everyone is different. Claire chose not to remember, shut people out of her life, and wonder if it was better to stay in this world or leave it. I haven’t even touched on the relationship between Claire and Roy (Sam Worthington – Avatar, Man on a Ledge), Nina’s grieving widower, or between Claire and her housekeeper/driver Silvana (Adriana Barraza – Babel, Thor). If you watch the dynamics in each of those relationships, you’ll see how Claire treats each of these two characters differently based on how well she knows each character and what she is seeking from each of these people.

Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 9/10 (Aniston develops her character well though there were a couple of scenes where I thought there was some detraction from where
Character Chemistry 9/10 (the scenes of Aniston and Barraza or Aniston and Worthington are heartfelt)
Acting 9.5/10 (In my opinion, this was the third or fourth-best performance by an actress this year – Moore and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) have her beat, but this is right there with Witherspoon and Pike)
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 8.5/10 (a little uneven at times…too many side characters…William H Macy’s character wasn’t needed at all…it hurt the movie, in my opinion)
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 8.5/10 (hollow…I loved it)
Hook and Reel 9/10 (my type of movie, but not for everyone…some people will be wondering why this is the movie they chose)
Universal Relevance 10/10 (dealing with tragedy…absolutely…I’m never going to fault a film that explores these feelings and does so with diligence)
89%

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