Aha, yes...

I agree with bhoover's post. For me this was a film fundamentally about the nature of love, what it means to truly love someone - my perception of Grant was that yes, he'd been a philanderer and Fiona had loved him enough to forgive him but he carried that guilt with him all those years (re the scene where he wonders if she's punishing him through her dementia), which in effect was its own punishment.

He's initially jealous of her relationship with Aubrey but her unhappiness when they are separated forces him to confront his own motivations, he is possessive of her (ironic considering his own infidelity) but comes to accept that he can't possess her. In bringing Aubrey to her he does the most unselfish thing he can, it goes some way to redemption IMO.

The reuniting scene isn't shown, but in some ways it's irrelevant as to what happens between Fiona & Aubrey from then on (they both have dementia, their future is anything but certain) - the main point is that Grant truly wants her happiness and is letting her go.

I agree: "a beautiful movie." And Polley and her film scooped up awards with a shovel, so others agreed. I'm watching the film again on Sundance -- and blown away by the leads' performances. So quiet. Understated. Reigned-in emotions. Confusion. Vagueness. Ephemeral clear moments -- like the disease "Fiona" is battling. Be careful of what you might think is obvious.

I disagree with O.P. -- but completely agree how its a "disjointed mess" -- precisely. 'Just like the crappy illness, Alzheimers, which creeps and invades and steals. The screenplay's loaded with ironies and subliminal references. Grant looks back and clings to a 45-year marriage to "the beautiful woman with a shock of hair." He chooses to remember The Good. (Many of us do in still-important-to-us relationships; i.e., the Bad is cancelled out and we prefer to remember just The Good.) But he's not off the hook. His failing wife, keenly remembers with odd timing...in those final minutes of the car ride to her final place, the nursing home...about his infidelities. (Fiona: "...there are things I WISH would go away, but won't...") And then Marian is adamant in explaining to Grant how she's won't pay for Aubrey in the care facility because she's "not losing the house." Of course, her real lament is for the loss of her husband, her "home." The teen asks Gordon, "why aren't you with your wife?" Precisely. The administrator explains how "they've got short memories and that's not always so bad" as we SEE Gordon thinking, "but it's MY effing memory that's not short...at...all." The whole screenplay's mind-blowing and dynamitely executed because it's so understated.

I'm blown away when Gordon reads to his wife, "...even when most terrified, those who love, cannot make up their minds to go or stay." Wow. The whole films a constant pinball machine in slow-motion...just like the slowed-down lives of the aging Fiona & Grant and Aubrey & Marian. The undercurrent is a known hopelessness. They know it. We know it FOR them, too. So how does one remain loyal when everything says one shouldn't? Whether it's a cheating husband early in marriage...or a senior citizen who's losing her mind -- and while she's doing it, displaying a sort of "infidelity" or cheating?

Fiona says it in the beginning...and then repeats it again at the very end...when she declares her love for Gordon by saying "You never left me; you never forsook me." And at the end, we understand FOR Gordon how he will never ever actually be "Away From Her," not when she remembers things in this way... and she will until she can't anymore. And so...he always stays and is not "Away From Her." Redemption. Peace.

I'm absolutely fascinated by this film -- and by Polley. To categorically toss "Grant" into a philanderer category whose getting his comeuppance? That's on a much-to-simple level. This film's message is thick and big and real.

Thx for the opportunity here...