Given a choice, would you really want to spend your evening as entertainment watching a person descend into the mental oblivion of Alzheimer's? In the case of "Away from Her" playing at the Admiral, the answer is "yes" - decidedly so.

In this affecting film by Sarah Polley the first hints of Alzheimer's invade the marriage of Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona Anderson (Julie Christie). Fiona can't recall simple things - a name or where the skillet should be stored. As the symptoms progress, Grant struggles to hold onto their old life. But Fiona, in her lucid moments, makes a fateful choice to follow the disease where it will lead her and enters an assisted living center.

Once in the center Fiona begins to let go of her memory, her old life, and Grant. She strikes up a friendship with Aubrey (Michael Murphy), a fellow resident and as she does the story turns itself upside down.

"Away From Her" is not so much about the indignities of aging as it is about the indignities of love.

There is something raw and unfinished in Grant's love for Fiona. These two are still lovers as much as they are a comfortable old couple. And, as lovers often do, they approach each other with an edgy, unbalanced dance of yearning. Grant is fighting for more than the familiar rhythms of their retired life, he wants Fiona - the vivid spark that she brought to his world - and the significance he used to play in hers.

But Fiona is leaving him, sometimes through the heartless opacity of Alzheimer's and at others, in moments of lucidity, because of the choices she believes she must make to keep life bearable.

The irony of "Away From Her" is that Grant, who has been left physically intact, is at times the most disoriented by the ravages of Alzheimer's.

Alzheimer's isn't so much the story in "Away From Her" as a stick that Polley uses to probe the crevices of Grant and Fiona's relationship. She's interested in the complex forces that give this marriage weight and wants us to feel the hard, visceral choices that stand in the way of the future.

"Away From Her" skates, on thin ice, over a sea of sentimentality and its success owes a lot to inspired casting.

Julie Christie is remarkable as Fiona. She transforms from a captivating and vibrant spirit to a sullen, still husk of her former self and then, unexpectedly, back again. Christie's beauty has endured through every stage of her life. She is a woman who was born to be a star and the film exploits that beauty to keep us sympathetic to Grant's refusal to let go.

Gordon Pinsent has a voice that compliments Christie's physical elegance. He is Canada's version of Morgan Freeman. Dialogue just seems to be little better, a little more profound, when it comes out of his mouth.

Between the two of them they keep Grant and Fiona's marriage fresh and surprising.

Olympia Dukakis does a great turn as Aubrey's world-weary wife, Marion, but it's Aubrey himself who is often the gem in this movie. Having survived a coma that was caused by some unspecified trauma, Aubrey is a sullen, mute figure who rarely moves from his wheel chair and, in fact rarely moves at all. Using an infinitesimal range of expression, Murphy forces us to accept him as Fiona's new love interest and the source of Grant's helpless jealously

"Away From Her" takes license with the realities of Alzheimer's. Polley puts a soft focus on the ravages of age (we can only hope to find ourselves parked a nursing home and still looking that good) in order to create a sharp picture of the bruising journey of the heart.

Directed by Sarah Polley

Rated PG-13

(Three and one half stars)

Bruce Bulloch may be reached via wseditor@robinsonnews.com