Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

it was a fantastic movie i cried while watching it. Julia Roberts was pure and pretty that time, still, beautiful and charming now.but Campbell did change a lot i just couldn't believe he was the same personthis movie was quite touching. i highly recommend you to have a watch of this movie since it's the best romantic movie i've ever seen. I like Julia a lot. i still remembered her first act in Pretty Woman. She's so beautiful!!!! I fall in love with her charm. About Campbell, why did he change so much? i understand people get older and look older in a natural way, but he was that HANDSOME in the movie..anyways, i love this movie, i'd like to watch and watch it again and again

Hilary O'Neal was not prepared for the job she took as a caregiver to someone with leukemia, Victor Geddes. At first, she just want to have a job and a life away from a mother who did not understand why she could not stay with her cheating boyfriend. She accepted the job of a caregiver just to get over a failed affair and be out of her mother's house. Day one, she was ready to give-up, after she experienced how complicated and difficult the situation with Victor after his chemotherapy treatment. (Julia was very convincing, she was Hilary)She however stayed out of compassion and although Victor being rich and an only child of a successful, widower lawyer, who often times was obnoxious, Hilary slowly found out there is sweetness in him. (Campbell Scott was at his best as Victor).Victor who was eager to experience life again, away from hospital treatments, deceived Hilary that he completed his treatment, so she would go with him for what he called vacation. They drove north to Mendocino, spent time alone together and fell in love. (If you are a woman, you will fall in love with Campbell; and if you are man, you would like to be taken cared of by Julia after watching these scenes)But without his regular chemotherapy treatment, he felt sick again after several weeks, but hid it from Hilary. Victor was competing with a local carpenter they met at a bar, Gordon, for Hilary's attention, worried that she will want Gordon instead because Gordon and Hilary have much in common. (Kudos to Director Joel Schumaker, for the subtle introduction of an "almost love triangle") Hilary found out Victor was sick again and felt that Victor planned ending his life, instead of going back to hospital treatment. Victor didn't want to go back to a life he had for the last ten years, he wanted Hilary to stay with him until he passed. Angry and scared, Hilary left, called Victor's father, knowing he was the only one who can convince Victor to go back to treatment. So she thought. (I haven't seen Julia acted as passionately again in her other movies, as she was in this movie)For the last time, they attended a Christmas party by a local vineyard owner who befriended them during their so called vacation. When Hilary arrived at the party with Gordon, Victor was jealous. He was determined not to go back to the hospital again, left unannounced and prepared to leave and hide again. But Hilary knew him very well by then, he followed him back to the house and begged him to stay with her and get well. It was obvious they have fallen truly in love with each other, and determined to stay together again, hopeful, they left Mendocino to face the future whatever it might be. (This part of the movie was the best I've seen)The ending scene was inspiring, it touched your soul. It could have not ended any other way. After watching this movie in 1991, and many times again and again in the last twenty years, my mind hasn't changed - Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott have been my favorite actors the last two decades, and Dying Young my favorite movie of all times. To my regret, Hollywood don't make movies like this anymore. Thanks a lot to Sally Field.

You can tell there's a problem with a romantic drama when you find yourself not really caring whether or not the couple gets together at the end. That, unfortunately, was my problem with "Dying Young" a movie that I was hoping would stir my emotions, since I am usually a sucker for pictures like this. "Dying Young" stars Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott, the latter as a young man sick with leukemia, the former as his nurse. As you would expect, it's a Florence Nightingale tale with the two falling in love. But the fault does not lie with its two stars, and not at all with its director, Joel Schumacher, but with its writer, Richard Friedenberg.The screenplay is rather limp, playing with the rhythms of conventional melodrama far too often, and without any real zing. A movie can get by with being conventional, if a lot of heart is poured into it by the storyteller. But that is not the case here. Gifted as they are, Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts do not have a whole terrible lot to work with. She is hired by him, he takes a shine to her (could any man not?), she resists him but pities him, and then warms up, and voila! They're sleeping together. But that was all that I could sense from the picture. The two stars steaming up the screen every once in a while. They did not seem to have a real relationship. I cared a little more whether Mr. Scott's character lived or died, but even at the end, I couldn't have felt less on the question of whether or not the couple would be able to come together again. As if we didn't already know and expect. The script also touches on some good subjects. Chemotherapy, for instance and how it can help kill cancer, but also make life for the patient a nightmare. However, the narrative does not develop these moments to register an appropriate impact.Thankfully, the movie makes the wise choice of limiting scenes with the leading lady's mother. First of all, the dialogue is silly (she actually tells her daughter to move back in with her boyfriend, even though she caught him in bed with another woman, just because he paid the bills) and Ellen Burstyn's performance is sheer ham-acting.Telling the story in a solid narrative also seems to be Mr. Friedenberg's weakness. For the movie is told with a lot of big lumps to bounce over. Take for instance, a rather oddball scene with Vincent D'Onofrio. Of course, being a romantic drama, there has to be a secondary character to make the leading man jealous. Anyway, Mr. D'Onofrio brings them a television set, and they watch "Jeopardy." The sequence proceeds to them trying to outguess each other on what the answers are, and just when it seems it might be leading somewhere, it all ends. The moment is nice enough, and grabbed my attention, but when it cut off, it left me wondering just what on earth the point of it all was. Yes, it did more or less resurface twenty minutes later at a predictable dinner scene, but not registering with much impact. And speaking of which, Miss Roberts' decision to run away from the hospital to the country house is rather awkward. Given the fact that the characters are not romantically involved yet.And just what was the point of Miss Roberts running into her ex-boyfriend in a bar? Where to or from did the scene come from? Director Schumacher is to be commended. Except in a couple of jump cut scenes at the beginning, in which we see Mr. Scott suffering from chemotherapy, he does a solid job of directing. Most lovely are his moving images at a country house the couple move into about midway through the picture. A scene in bed between Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts is handled wonderfully, with the camera swishing away from them just as they start to kiss and fondle each other, and then finding the mirror across the room. He also does something that I consider wise. Avoiding the sex scene. He shows us the beginning, and the end, but not the middle. Evidently, he had more faith in the story than the screenwriter.Not to say that Richard Friedenberg's screenplay is a hack-job piece of work. It's adequate enough, but not impassioned. The few tender moments are generated by Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts, and thanks to Mr. Schumacher's fabulous directing. And the movie as a whole is not bad by a long shot. But by the end of it all, it did not seem to matter what became of either character, and I did not feel as if I had gotten to know either of them. As a result, their relationship did not seem to amount to a whole heck of a lot. It's a great idea, with good intentions and good acting, but not much heart. Maybe the original novel by Marti Leimbach works better. I would be interested in finding out.

As many other comments have said, this is a truly moving film. I had a friend who suffered from leukemia, but she didn't make it. All the despair, hope, and courage she displayed is displayed by Campbell Scott.And Campbell Scott - what an actor, who has never made it "big", but perhaps he doesn't want to. My favorite comment I ever read about him is this: with George C. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst as his parents, this guy could run the Kentucky Derby and win.Julia Roberts, way before Erin Brockovich, shows compassion and a resilience to helping Vincent. Of course we know that she will eventually fall in love with him, as he does with her.I like that the movie ends in a "grey" area. We are left to wonder if Vincent makes it and if Hilary stays with him. Truly a well-made film that deserved more notice.