'So much' is powerful look at ALS

By Jeff Vice
Deseret Morning News

SO MUCH SO FAST — *** 1/2 — Documentary feature about Lou Gehrig's disease research; not rated, probable PG-13 (drugs, profanity, vulgarity).
The documentary "So Much So Fast" quite clearly shows how much we still don't know about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
But it's not just a film about the frustrations of medical science. "So much" is also a very compelling human story.
The film also gains some power with the realization that its main subject, Stephen Heywood, died last month after suffering for years from symptoms caused by the degenerative, neuromuscular disorder.


West City FilmsStephen Heywood holds his son, Alex, in "So Much So Fast." As a result, it's a very strong follow-up to the Oscar-nominated 1996 documentary "Troublesome Creek" for filmmakers Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan, who had their own personal experience with ALS when Jordan's mother, Mary Jane, died from the disease.
"So Much" profiles Heywood, a designer and builder who refused to surrender to despair after being diagnosed with ALS, a so-called "orphan disease" (one that affects fewer than a million people, and as a consequence receives less funding from pharmaceutical companies).
And neither does Stephen's older brother Jamie, who quit his job as an engineer to start his own nonprofit research facility, with a staff working tirelessly to discover a cure — or at least develop drugs that will prolong the lives of ALS sufferers.
The film is quite effective as it traces the physical toll the disease takes on Stephen. Footage shows him regress over time as he walks without aid at first — only to end up using a walker and then a wheelchair, and then, though still lively, becomes bedridden.
Almost as heartbreaking is the toll it takes on Jamie, whose marriage and career are both threatened by his efforts to aid his brother. You have to admire Ascher and Jordan's restraint in dealing with the brothers' personal lives, though that subject matter is broached here as well.
"So Much So Fast" is not rated but would probably receive a PG-13 for drug content (use and discussion of various pharmaceuticals) and some frank sexual language (including profanity and crude slang terms). Running time: 87 minutes.
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650213224,00.html

Review: 'So Much So Fast' documents a family's fight with ALS
By Sean P. Means
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated:12/07/2006 04:53:07 PM MST


Click photo to enlargeStephen Heywood's battle with ALS is chronicled in So Much So Fast. «1»So Much So Fast



* WHERE: Tower Theatre.
* WHEN: Opens today.
* RATING: Not rated, but probably PG-13 for language and discussions of sex.
* RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes.
* BOTTOM LINE: A family struggles with a debilitating disease, and with staying a happy family, in this highly personal documentary.

It may be hard to imagine that a documentary chronicling the slow debilitating progress of ALS - and the ways the patient'sFilm Finder

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family has rallied and been devastated by this disease - can be funny, invigorating and life-affirming. But you haven't met the Heywood family, the subjects of "So Much So Fast."
The Heywood brothers of Newton, Mass., were young, handsome, smart and gregarious - like an updated version of the Kennedy clan. Then Stephen, at age 29 in 1998, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, the disease that killed baseball legend Lou Gehrig and turned physicist Stephen Hawking into a curled-up immobile body communicating through a computer voice. Doctors said he might have five years to live, as his nervous system slowly shut down his muscles, then his voice, then his lungs.
Realizing time was
short, Stephen's loved ones moved quickly. Stephen and his girlfriend, Wendy, got married and had a son, Alex. Stephen's brother Jamie and his wife, Melinda, started a foundation to push drug research to find a cure for ALS - a so-called "orphan" disease that draws little attention from pharmaceutical companies.
Husband-and-wife filmmakers Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan learned about ALS the hard way when Jordan's mother, Mary Jane - one of the subjects of the 1995 Ascher/Jordan save-the-farm documentary "Troublesome Creek" - was diagnosed with the disease. Ascher (who narrates the film) and Jordan bring that personal knowledge to bear on the Heywoods' plight, sometimes asking wistfully whether it is ultimately any different from any other family's trouble.
Through five years of the Heywoods' struggle with ALS, from 1999 through 2004, "So Much So Fast" details how a disease can change a family's hopes - from Stephen's mounting frustration about his atrophying body to Jamie's battle to keep the foundation and his marriage afloat - but not its personality. As devoted as the Heywoods have been to fighting ALS (a fight that for Stephen ended with his death Nov. 26), they also fight to be more than just victims of a disease.
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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.


Screening, discussion tonight
* CO-DIRECTOR STEVEN ASCHER will introduce a screening of "So Much So Fast" tonight at 7:30 at the Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City. He also will take part in a panel discussion with representatives of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and with community activist Alan Alderman, who has ALS.
* PROCEEDS from ticket sales for tonight's screening will go to MDA and Salt Lake Film Society community programs.