Must See Movie...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Awesome Movie

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play "Wit" (aka "W,t"), it was adapted and rewritten for HBO film by Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson.Prof. Vivian Bearing (Thompson) specializes in John Donne's 17th century metaphysical poetry. (Donne wrote the famous "No man is an island unto himself, Everyman is a part of the continent, a piece of the main..." which I've long loved and understand; but Donne's "Holy Sonnets" are unfamiliar and considerably beyond me;--no matter, this film remains great!.) She's a renowned scholar and popular teacher but yet quite demanding (& without compassion for her students). After Prof. Bearing is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, she agrees to participate in a research trial of a medicinal course. During the movie, she frequently breaks the "fourth wall," often speaking directly to the camera (we, the audience) as she wrestles with the meaning of her life (& death) and her growing awareness of her mortality and the importance of compassion in life. A compelling movie to watch, it's sad (tissues mandatory) but also very uplifting at the end. The background music is excellent and appropriate in both mood and title (it includes Arvo Part's "Spiegle im Spiegle" ("Mirror in Mirror") & Charles Ives "Unanswered Question.") IMDb says this movie is now shown in many medical schools teaching future MDs the importance of compassion. Roger Ebert said Thompson's performance was her best on film. My rating of this Emma Thompson performance: >15+/10.

A friend gave me a copy of the play's script. I was stunned. A day or two later I rented and then quickly purchased the DVD. I am a physician with boards in internal medicine and psychiatry who has spent 35 years caring for the elderly and dying in hospital and hospice settings. This movie crystallizes those years of experience. Six years ago I invited the ten medical students in my history taking group to view the film together in a setting away from the school. I have since repeated this twice yearly with each of the small groups under my charge. I made one big mistake the first year. After the movie ended I turned on the lights while the credits were running, oblivious to the sniffing and outright weeping on the part of the freshman medical students. Since then I've permitted the credits to run completely before turning on the lights. There is generally a delay of up to five minutes before any of them are able to say anything. The student response has been uniform. Gratitude for having seen the film, awe of the realities of the profession they have chosen to enter and appreciation for the chance to come to a deeper understanding of their own selves and motivations for entering medical school. Eileen Atkins is absolutely superb as Evelyn Ashford, PhD. Her scenes are brief but they bring the deeply religious underpinnings of the film to the fore. Her first scene, in which she recites the final stanza of Donne's Holy Sonnett X, (a scene which gave the movie its title) contrasts with the tender love in Vivian's hospital room. Her reciting of the poetry is astonishing. It was not until the sixth or so viewing (I've lost count) that I realized her parting words, "May the angels lead you to Paradise. . . " were the English translation of In Paradisum from the Roman Catholic funeral liturgy. That was one time when my tears joined the students. Anyone working in medicine; students, residents, nurses and nursing students, aides and so on, should watch this movie. I generally used the class the day following the viewing for a discussion of the movie, the bedside manner of the docs, nurses, techs and so on as well as what feelings the movie stirred in them. The conversations have been memorable. This is a movie that is not to be missed. It is tragic that it was made for television by HBO rather than given general theatrical release. Many fewer people have seen it is a result.

I happened on Wit in a discount video bin at Barnes and Noble, and picked it up largely because it was cheaper to buy than rent and I am a fan of Emma Thompson's.I was not at all prepared to be drawn into the stark, claustrophobic realm of end-stage cancer, the sea of regret and self-analysis that can only happen when the end is near and one is very much alone. The story of how a disease broke even the stoic, cold, and very much alone professor of holy sonnets is not exactly uplifting, but it is a stunning performance, a riveting and realistic performance. Emma Thomson is as always brilliant, and this movie is very centralized, almost entirely consisting of Emma Thompson's internal dialogue, but she's helped along ably by Audra McDonald, the tony-award winning singer who stowed her amazing singing voice to play a nurse who represents the humanity inherent in medical dilemmas, even as the doctors (played by the famous Christopher Lloyd and Jonathan Woodward, who I've never seen before) relegate a human being purely to the academic world; a world which the abandoned person ironically used to live in exclusively.It is draining, disturbing, exhausting, and not a film to be watched everyday, but it is well-done and it was a shame it didn't get any more exposure and theatrical release. I'm guessing people didn't think the one-person dialogue would play well on the big screen. But if you are in the mood for a great performance, check out this Emma Thompson work. Just remember to breathe all the way through.

Being a fan of Emma Thompson, I was anxious to see this....but wound up not exactly entertained, although I always appreciate her acting. Seeing a woman slowly die of cancer is not exactly an uplifting storyline, but that's what this is all about. I'm not surprised the film wasn't a big hit.What the story specifically focuses on is Emma ("Vivian Bering") being the subject of an experimental drug. She is dying of cancer and by being the "guinea pig," she courageously can demonstrate how effective this drug is even though she knows it isn't going to cure her."Bering" is a cold, intellectual college professor who, through this ordeal, slowly finds out the importance of people treating others with more humanity. That sounds inspiring, but it's a tough movie to sit through. Critics called it "intelligent" because Thomposn's character used an extensive vocabulary as she narrated her experiences. A so-so film but certainly not one I would watch a second time. Seeing Thompson bald and bitter throughout a good portion of the film wasn't fun, either!