Best movie of this year hands down!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Unlike many biographical films this one doesn't alter things so much from the historical record. It doesn't make one person more sympathetic than they were in reality, and, as the ending shows, it reaches not a grand finale, but a whimper. (Apologies for the nod to Eliot's most famous line – which he found tiresome too) This is a very sad story because the principals in real life were devoted to each other, but for a range of almost mysterious reasons to contemporary audiences, Vivienne's various maladies, mental and gynecological, are shrouded. Richardson carries this role well, and she almost owned the canon of disturbed women for a while in her career.The stand out is Dafoe as Eliot. Dafoe has the solemn, dignified, presence; the accent of period Englishness of a certain class and his American accent suppressed in the voice but mingled nearly perfectly to sound like Eliot. In addition Eliot's life, especially during these turbulent chapters were smothered, and to see Dafoe incarnate Eliot gives life to a man who was often an abstracted mind. This is a fine production in almost all respects although it may not have a wide appeal.

The late American humorist Jean Shepherd once remarked that he admired T.S. Eliot, that you had to admire a man who would use those two initials his parents gave him as his name. It was like he was making a statement to the world.He was no Emily Dickinson, he got acclaim for his poetry during his life, but I'm sure back in 1915 when this story starts Eliot didn't want fame or sought it. He wanted to teach, to write, and toward that end he found both his muse and love of his life.And that's the person that Willem Dafoe is showing us when Tom & Viv starts. He's an eager, young scholar of no particular repute who is in love with Miranda Richardson as Vivienne Haigh-Wood. Father Philip Locke figures he's a fortune hunter, brother Tim Dutton likes him and they become close and mother Rosemary Harris is grateful that someone is taking her off their hands.But they don't tell young Eliot about Vivienne's mental problems which grow more pronounced with age. Richardson earns Dafoe's love, inspires his poetry and tries his patience beyond measure. In the end she's put away in an asylum.The real kicker though is a scene with an American doctor during the closing part of World War II when it is discovered that her problems could now have been treated medically. The doctors had it all wrong with her, but only recent advances in science have shown the error of their ways. By that time it's way too late for either Tom or Viv.Tom & Viv got two Oscar nominations for Miranda Richardson for Best Actress and Rosemary Harris for Best Supporting Actress. Richardson is really fascinating to watch, a woman in the grip of something she cannot comprehend, but neither can anyone else. She lost to Jessica Lange for Blue Sky. As for Harris, her final scene with Dafoe is what probably got her the nomination. She succeeds on so many levels, understanding her daughter, understanding why the marriage went bad, but still hurt at Dafoe's betrayal of her daughter. Harris lost to Dianne Wiest for Bullets Over Broadway.Tom & Viv succeeds well in capturing the Great Britain of the two World Wars and the period between. The characters are sharply drawn and quite unforgettable in their way. Especially Richardson, this may wind up as her career role as an actress.

i had to start this movie like four times before i could stand its horrifyingly realistic portrayal of spousal poetic betrayal enough to watch it to the end. miranda richardson is staggeringly effective in portraying a xianthippe-ish thorn in t. s. eliot's side.

Anyone who has been captivated by the poetry of this great poet, and wondered about the man and the context in which such memorable verse was written, will want to see this film. It shows T S Eliot as a tormented man who is forced to make decisions about how to deal with the mental instability/illness of his wife. The performances are uniformly faultless, and the awful tragedy of mental illness in a marriage is chillingly depicted with deep sensitivity. The film challenges the viewer to judge Eliot as a man - Dafoe's performance brilliantly portrays the anguish of Eliot the man living in what apparently was an impossible marriage, and Eliot the public figure . The film also throws light on Eliot's fascination with the Church and the role it played in providing a still place in a world of personal mental turmoil. Highly recommended.