Still Alice, a film by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, follows Alice Howland (Julianne Moore), a linguistics professor at Columbia University, and her family through the struggles of living with severe early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alice was a world-renowned teacher until she began to experience a loss of words and fading sense of direction. A once positive and famous professor faces the struggle of holding on to “her sense of self” while her family watches her disappear into the disease.

Richard Glatzer, the man who adapted Lisa Genova’s novel and directed the film with his friend, Wash Westmoreland, recently died on March 10th, 2015 of ALS. He found out that he had ALS during the filming process of “Still Alice” and knew that finishing and seeing this film in theaters would be his final gift to the world informing them to judge people by their personalities, and not their disease.

Living with a disease such as Alzheimer’s is extremely difficult, not only because of its physical side effects, but also because of the constant public judgment victims face. Julianne Moore speaks about the disease and discusses the importance of “giv[ing] people the space to be who they are and not judge them for what is happening to them with their disease.”

Although the film is dark, it realistically depicts living with Alzheimer’s disease. Each stage of the disease is depicted starting from the diagnosis to the loss of words completely. Glatzer and Westmoreland both made it clear that they wanted to tell the public to treat those with Alzheimer’s or with any other disease with respect. The title in itself, “Still Alice” conveys that the character wants people know that she is still the same person she was before diagnosis, Alice.

Many fans of the novel were skeptical when they found out that Julianne Moore would portray their beloved Alice Howland, but their skepticism was proved wrong because Julianne Moore shone in her role, even receiving the Oscar for Best Actress, only reaffirming her ability as an actor. Not only did Julianne Moore shine, but her costars, Alec Baldwin, Kristen Stewart, and Kate Bosworth, also acted with great skill. These actors perfectly portrayed the ups and downs that a normal family goes through in addition to living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Overall, “Still Alice”, by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, conveys the heartbreaking story of Alice perfectly, while at the same time incorporating the normal struggles of everyday life. At the end of the film, Lydia (played by Kristen Stewart) recites a monologue from a play and asks her mother what she thinks it meant. With difficulty, yet determination, Alice says that it was about love which reveals the center idea of the film, when everything comes to an end, love is all that remains.