MovieChat Forums > Still Alice (2015) Discussion > Most unrealistic part: the age of her ol...

Most unrealistic part: the age of her older kids

posted 9 years ago by GuyOnTheLeft
13 replies | jump to latest

An extremely driven, fifty year old Ivy League professor would not have adult kids that old. I'm sure there's someone, somewhere like that, but if it's not the main point of the story you usually want to make the sort of background of the story a little more realistic. Take that set of siblings at that age (early twenties to early thirties) with Ivy League professor parents, and the parents are going to be more like sixty.

We could say that Kate Bosworth was playing younger, just like Julianne Moore was, and that she was in her late twenties--but that still makes Moore's character 21 or 22 when she had her, and that's still...weird. Plus Bosworth's character was married, settled into a career, and was getting infertility treatments, all social markers for an established professional woman in her thirties, not a 27-year-old who has just passed the bar exam. Even the way she was dressed and styled was very "thirtysomething".

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[–] sbb19 9 years ago

Thank you for bringing this up. I noticed this as well. The son, who we assume is either an intern or a resident, would have to be in his very late twenties at best.
They reference the suggestion that she crammed everthing in together- college, kids, grad school- in the bedroom scene in the beach house, but your take is much more realistic.

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 9 years ago

Thanks and yeah, good points about the son. He had to be at least a year younger than his sister, and it seems he was already a practicing doctor of some sort.

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[–] anna-natlacen 9 years ago

In the book it actually says that Alice got unexpectedly pregnant at a very young age but decided to keep working for most of her children's childhoods.

[–] david_hokey_16 9 years ago

It's clearly stated during her guest lecture that she juggled school and motherhood at the same time. It helps develop her character: she's driven, hard-working, and as her neurologist says, resourceful. It's not unrealistic. Rare, yes, but not unrealistic.

[–] hppg 8 years ago

I thought the same...they said she had kids quite early (wasn't that whilst doing her PhD or something?) but it still seemed the eldest was 28 at a very minimum (most likely 30+), and this seemed out of place at a 50th birthday party.

[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

People seem to have problems with the timeline and the children's age on the board, but I don't see this as a Clair Huxtable in that Alice's situation was different.

They made reference that the death of her mother and sister, her marriage and the birth of her first child took place within a fairly short window of time.

I thought there was an explanation in Alice's case in that her children were her test subjects within her field of expertise.

Alice would have had her first child at the time she completed her undergrad, her second child when she finished her masters, and afterwards obtained the information she needed to complete her dissertation and elevate her study from raising her children.

Basically, she figured a way to take her children to work without leaving her home.

All that being well and good, I agree there was something just OFF about Anna. She did act more like someone in her mid thirties, she was descending towards her younger sibling,(although Lydia held a deeper understanding), and her speech was different from not only from her siblings, but also her parents. I don't know, perhaps she was simply miscast.

[–] hppg 8 years ago

I think that was just her personality. Not particularly warm, obviously driven and a bit distant because she wanted her own situation. I'm also perplexed that knowing she had the gene (and maybe, what, 20 years left?) she would still decide to proceed to have the kids immediately. (Hopefully she screen them.) I mean not saying you should never have kids but it didn't even seem to give a moment of pause. And yes, it was ironic how it was the younger daughter and her availability and dedication that benefitted them all in terms of the care.

[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

Good points and yes, Anna told Alice the benefit of knowing her status was they knew in time to screen the embryos for the gene.

I believe that while it was also true that Anna carried the gene and had a 100% chance of developing the diseases, it did not necessarily mean that it would develop at such an early as her mother.

There would have also been the obvious hope that they're would be more treatment options for Anna than were available to her mother.

[–] sunchick116-872-583383 8 years ago

i could have sworn they said at the beginning of the movie it was her FORTIETH BIRTHDAY so i agree the age of her kids seemed off but was it proven Anna was doing fertility treatments? i thought the twins were naturally conceived.

[–] larpine-225-371665 8 years ago

The son in-law said she looked like it was her fortieth.

[–] mmitchell355-2 8 years ago

Her handling of the early years of her children was explained in the book. She took off time to nurture her two oldest children, but took off less time for her youngest child. She knew taking time off would hurt her career, but she still took the time. John continued working and it bothered her, that her husband, career was more advanced.

Alice pushed her daughters to not waste time. It's why the oldest daughter decided to go back to work, so soon after the twins were born. Her mom stressed, how having children could her a woman's career aspirations. It was also why Alice harped on the youngest daughter about college. She believed her youngest could have gotten a degree, during that time she was in LA.

[–] GuyOnTheLeft 8 years ago

This doesn't explain the fact that the Kate Bosworth character is getting infertility treatments. Who does that before age 35?

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[–] missworld22883 8 years ago

People of all ages get fertility treatments. I have a cousin who is younger than me and she had twins last year with in vitro when she was 28, which means they probably started treatments when she was like 26/27. From what I can recall, if you try for a baby for at least a year (or maybe 2? I forget) with no results, then it's time to see a fertility specialist if you are able.