Away From Her.

"The function of remembrance is an enigma in Away from Her which plays like an Alain Resnais film writ small and domestic," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "In adapting Alice Munro's short story 'The Bear Came Over the Mountain,' Sarah Polley wisely expands the themes of personal memory to include collective memory, as well; though it's essentially a love story, Away from Her is grounded in the mechanics of human interaction, thought, repression, denial, and acceptance."

"In Away From Her, short-term memory may be going, going, gone, but the distant past that floods in to take its place can be devastating and, in its way, sublime," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly. "Far from being the look-at-me calling card so many first-time filmmakers feel obliged to turn out, it's a precociously assured and mature work, at once humble and bold, that keeps faith with Munro's precise, graceful prose while tailoring its linear progression into shapely cinematic form." Also, a talk with Polley, who tells her that she's going after the rights to Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace.

"This isn't a neophyte's film; it's a film made by somebody with an innate understanding of cinematic language and a striking personal vision," writes Andrew O'Hehir, who also talks with Polley for Salon.

"Away From Her is a twilight-of-life love story, one that harshly demolishes our romantic notions of love and loyalty, then replaces them with something deeper and, finally, more consoling," writes New York's David Edelstein.

"[Julie] Christie's emotional capacity and riveting screen presence makes a character's behavior credible and idealized at once," writes Armond White in the New York Press. "This is a quality that Away From Her's director, Sarah Polley (the young Canadian actress making her directorial debut), understands with special complicity." Also, Jennifer Merin talks with Polley.

Katrina Onstad lunches with Polley: "Baron Munchausen,' she said, 'really defined me in terms of never really wanting to be on huge films ever, and really focusing on independent films. There's a real fear in me of never wanting to be in an unsafe environment again.'" She was 8.

Michael Koresky interviews Polley for Reverse Shot.

Anthony Lane profiles Christie for the New Yorker.

Online listening tips. NPR's interviews.

Earlier: "Sundance. Away From Her."

Updates, 5/4: "There is, in Ms Munro's mature work, a flinty wisdom about heterosexual love, a skepticism about romantic ideals that does not altogether deny their power or necessity," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. "Ms Polley, rather remarkably for someone still in her 20s, shows an intuitive grasp of this wisdom and a welcome, unsentimental interest in the puzzles and pleasures of a long, imperfect marriage.... I can't remember the last time the movies yielded up a love story so painful, so tender and so true."

"Much has been made of Polley's age (28), especially in relation to her material, but well intentioned as this sort of comment has mostly been, I think it's unfair," writes Carina Chocano. What distinguishes Away From Her is that it takes an honest, clear-eyed view of a subject that is talked about constantly but about which little is actually said. Away From Her focuses on what love is like after the honeymoon stage, which Polley, who has been married for a few years, has said is the stage most interesting to her. What's remarkable to me is that more young people aren't making more films as confident as this." Also in the Los Angeles Times, Scott Timberg talks with both Munro and Polley.

Dan Callahan at the House Next Door: "Christie '65/Christie '07: Julie Christie in Darling & Away From Her."

"[N]ot only an excellent film, but also a tender, studied look at aging, love and loss, the product of a cinematic imagination wise way beyond Polley's years," writes Bilge Ebiri at Nerve, where he also interviews Polley.

Update, 5/5: Online listening tip. Polley's a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Updates, 5/7: "For a story with only one possible outcome, Away From Her is full of twists and turns," writes Marcy Dermansky. "Polley, a graduate of two [Atom] Egoyan films, certainly knows how to reshuffle a narrative to increase dramatic tension. She also knows about kindness: she sprinkles an emotionally grueling tale with welcome doses of humor."

"What Polley has crafted succeeds on its own merits; suffusing her frame with ethereal light, everyone and everything within is constantly on the brink of whiting out altogether," writes Michelle Orange at the Reeler. "There is real grace in her portrait of a couple that stays together long enough to forget."

Greg Ursic talks with Polley for Hollywood Bitchslap.

Update, 5/10: "I am not one to resist the opportunity to rush headlong and heedless toward an apparent horizon of light and gush when I see a movie that cares for the mystery of love and longitude in shared human experience, but I have to say that the only release in 2007 to hover near the Irish marvel of a musical, Once, opening next week, would be 28-year-old Sarah Polley's feature debut as a writer-director, Away From Her," writes Ray Pride.

Posted by dwhudson at May 3, 2007 1:50 PM