Away from Her

Away from Her follows Fiona and Grant, married for decades, as Fiona's memory begins to fail and she chooses to enter a residential care facility. During the enforced separation of her first weeks there, she grows deeply attached to a fellow resident and appears to lose hold of her husband. Grant is left to watch, and to decide how far his love will stretch.

The film reopens questions of marriage, loss, and jealousy in late life, and of what fidelity means when memory itself dissolves. It observes grief that begins while the person is still present and the humility required to put another's wellbeing above one's own claim. It was nominated for Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress at the 2008 Academy Awards, and is based on the short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro.