Did them being rich help or hinder this story?

But their having money didn't mean that they didn't struggle. If anything, I thought it made the point that this disease doesn't discriminate. Alice and her husband were obviously very well off but that couldn't save Alice or even delay the progression of her disease.

I did think the money was touched on very briefly, in that her husband said that he couldn't afford to take a year off of work, especially now when they would need the money more than ever.

But that was just my take! Obviously, the finances of dealing with a chronic illness are a very real problem for most people in that situation so your point is definitely valid.

So it's less sad if a rich person gets a horrible disease just because they're rich? You're despicable.

I'm almost certain they were written as being rich because it would have been far too depressing to watch a poor person go through the illness.

Hollywood class porn lol You hit the nail on the head.
Noone's going to watch a poor woman in a *beep* house with crappy life go through this illness. They can do however it if she's walking with her daughter by the beach of their vacation home. That's more tasteful.

My 100 favorite movies http://www.imdb.com/list/Uvw_F2_GMx8/
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Nice post. I agree 100%, except you probably articulated better than I could.

My 100 favorite movies http://www.imdb.com/list/Uvw_F2_GMx8/
What are your favorites?

I honestly didn't think their financial status hindered the story too much. At the end of the day, it was about a woman slowly losing who she is and struggling to hold on to whatever she had left. She was obviously a very driven and intelligent woman, and her husband was equally so, so it makes sense that they would be financially comfortable.

That being said, I do think money was an issue at least near the middle of the movie. They relied and planned on two incomes (Alice's and her husband's), and suddenly lost one. The husband was offered a great, high paying job in another state that would have made it easier to financially care for Alice, but relocating her would have put her health in jeopardy. They still would have been better off than most people even if they only had to downgrade their home and lifestyle a little bit, that is true, but at that point they were trying to keep things as normal as possible for her and not make any huge changes that would disrupt her patterns. I do think a little bit of it was the husband not wanting to watch her wasting away, but watching the film definitely showed that he cared deeply for her and probably just focused on the money/work aspect so he could deal with it better emotionally.

I suppose having more money can get them the best treatment available

I think that the family being rich worked for a few reasons:

1. Alice and her husband were both professors at Columbia. Professor jobs are very high-paying at the majority of universities as it is, and they would likely be getting pretty large salaries at one of the most well-regarded universities in the country

2. As an esteemed professor, Alice was incredibly smart and resourceful and that played a huge role in the story. We needed her to be that educated because it added to the shock of the situation. She's been so intelligent her whole life but, with Alzheimer's, a lot of her mental capacities have been taken away from her. We get to see the contrast of her at the beginning, teaching linguistics and coming up with games and strategies to keep her mind sharp, to her at the end, not even being able to fully pronounce the word love.

3. Making them well-off also focused the story. One thing I really liked about this movie was that it was simply about a woman's struggle with the disease and her family's attempts to cope with this tragedy. Since they are wealthy, it wasn't necessary to add any additional or forced conflicts like her husband leaving/divorcing her because he can't handle the financial strain of caring for an alzheimer's patient or her spending her years in a government facility where she is primarily taken care of by strangers. This film, although perhaps not realistic for most lower or middle-class families, felt especially emotional because you get to see the reactions of her and her family as her condition deteriorates. They never expected this to happen, and they aren't the perfect caregivers, but they are just trying to make the best of the situation.

4. While Alice is rich, I think we can still sympathize with her plight because her life really wasn't all easy. Her mother and sister died when she was a lot younger and her father died of liver disease, when she was in her 30s, as a result of his alcoholism (I would guess this was caused by the deaths of his wife and daughter but I'm just making an inference). Really, if anything, having her lose her mind and the achievements she worked so hard for make you sympathize with her even more. The impression I got is that she had to work hard for the riches she has and now her source of income and her knowledge of linguistics, a subject she was so passionate about, are gone.

That's just one person's opinion though and I can see your side as well.