Wash Westmoreland’s patient, actor-led dramas are worth watching for the attention he pays to people who struggle to be understood. We value that care in Still Alice, though his storytelling can be too cautious to match his actors.
Fi1m perspective
In Still Alice (2014), Julianne Moore gives us a woman whose intelligence remains apparent even as Alzheimer’s threatens it. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland adapt Lisa Genova’s novel without letting the illness make Alice merely an occasion for other people to learn compassion. We were moved by Moore’s scenes with Kristen Stewart because they keep Alice worth listening to when listening becomes difficult. This is Westmoreland’s strength: staying interested in a person when a simpler film would settle for a diagnosis.
His earlier films with Glatzer explored sexuality, family and changing neighbourhoods. Their first feature collaboration, The Fluffer (2001), is set in the gay adult film industry, while Quinceañera (2006) follows family tensions in a gentrifying Los Angeles neighbourhood. Glatzer co-wrote and co-directed both, and it would be misleading to treat these films as Westmoreland’s work alone.
He carried work begun with Glatzer into his solo directing. Colette (2018), with Keira Knightley in the title role, grew from a script begun with Glatzer in 2001, with Rebecca Lenkiewicz also credited on the screenplay. The subject, a French writer, continues his interest in women and self-expression. Earthquake Bird (2019), adapted from Susanna Jones’s novel and set in 1980s Tokyo, takes him into psychological thriller territory. There, his reserve is less useful: neither the mystery nor the character study is compelling enough.
Still Alice remains our recommendation, with a reservation about the writing. Its conventional script asks a great deal of the actors, and Moore and Stewart supply the emotional force that the storytelling sometimes lacks. The restraint is welcome, but it can also feel like an unwillingness to try anything less familiar. We would like to see that trust in performers accompanied by greater boldness in how their stories are told. Start with Moore and Stewart, and do not expect the filmmaking to surprise you as much as they do.
Biography
Wash Westmoreland is a British director and screenwriter. Born Paul Westmoreland in Leeds in 1966, he has worked in independent films, documentaries and television, often under earlier professional names including Wash West.
He frequently collaborated with his husband, writer-director Richard Glatzer, until Glatzer's death in 2015. Their films include Quinceañera (2006), which won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and Still Alice (2014), for which they shared the Humanitas Prize; Julianne Moore won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Westmoreland later directed Colette (2018) and Earthquake Bird (2019).
