Canadian actress Sarah Polley makes her feature debut as writer/director with this mature and deeply poignant meditation on love, loss and memory. In wonderfully understated performances, Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie play devoted couple Grant and Fiona, whose 50-year marriage appears unshakeable. However, events take a heartbreaking turn when Fiona develops Alzheimer's disease and decides to move into a care home, forcing Grant to watch helplessly as he gradually loses the woman he adores. Based on a short story by Alice Munro, it's a quiet and sensitively handled drama that allows the tragic narrative to speak for itself without sickly sentiment or showy direction. Polley adroitly captures the bittersweet intricacies of human relationships, while subtly tempering the overall melancholy with flashes of uplifting humour and hope. A cliché-free Christie has never been better, but it's Pinsent's affecting restraint in an ultimately trickier role that really carries the picture.

Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.