Gold Star for "Away From Her" [2], the debut film from Canada's Sarah Polley ("Go"). See it in your local theater today. (In ATL it's playing at Tara.) At the New Yorker, watch a clip (not the trailer).

Here's David Denby from earlier this month:

The fading of memory, the anguish of losing the contours and the colors of the physical world, the mixture of loyalty and selfishness in the elderly—these are not subjects you would expect a young filmmaker to understand or even to take much interest in. Yet “Away from Her,” based on the Alice Munro story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” (first published in this magazine in 1999), was written and directed by Sarah Polley, a Canadian actress who is still in her twenties. The movie, Polley’s feature début, is a small-scale triumph that could herald a great career.

The week before, Anthony Lane wrote briefly, but memorably:

If Penélope Cruz or Jennifer Lopez sees this movie, she may just give up and become a librarian.

A.O. Scott liked it, too:

I can’t remember the last time the movies yielded up a love story so painful, so tender and so true.

The Chicago Tribune hails:

Bergmanesque and beautiful, set in a wintry landscape fitfully lit by one woman's flickering awareness and one man's long-term, stubborn love, "Away from Her" is one of the most remarkable and moving love stories the movies have recently given us.

In a press interview, Polley laments:

"It's sad to think there was a time when people lined up around the block to see Bergman movies… and how unimaginable that is now."

Perhaps, but here's to hoping that a few people will line up for her movie.