Wit and Emma Thompson (1 Viewer)

[Michael Dehaven]

Wit: Screenplay by Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson adapted from the stage play by Margaret Edson. 99 minutes presented in 1:66 16x9 letterbox. English stereo. Produced by HBO Home Video.

Directed by Mike Nichols

Wit, is a small film of incalculable power, as performed by Emma Thompson. This is a film of texture and paradox, spoken in words of great beauty. The subject, death by cancer, is revealed to us by Professor Dearing (Emma Thompson), a scholar of the great 17th century metaphysical poet John Donne. A harrowing 99 minutes of haunting syllables and agonizing symptoms. This is an incredibly intimate and intelligent presentation as Emma speaks directly into the camera at us, and we are shaken. The journey from first diagnosis to her last breath is powerful and poignant.The paradox of humane care vs detached clinical researcher is heartbreaking and achingly portrayed. Shot on digital camera, it is a bit suprising to see so many defects on a digital source and the look/lighting is a bit harsh, but in the end the film is so riveting the defects hardly matter. I doubt that many will be willing to take this journey as it's language is complex and deeply meaningful. For anyone, willing to spend these 99 minutes in uncomprimising honesty, the rewards are devastating. Highly recommended.

 

[Bill Balcziak]

The journey from first diagnosis to her last breath is powerful and poignant.

Thanks for the spolier alert. :rolleyes

 

[Michael Reuben]

It's not a spoiler. There is no mystery about the outcome. Professor Bearing informs the audience at the outset that she's terminal. The film, like the play on which it is based, is about her review of her life as its end approaches and how she deals, step-by-step, with losing everything by which she had defined herself. It's unsparing, unsentimental and devastating.

M.

 

[Michael Dehaven]

Bill: That she dies is no secret as the film is about life and death.

 

[Peter D]

The program guide description from HBO:

Two-time Oscar(R)-winner Emma Thompson (1992 Best Actress - Howards End; 1995 Adapted Screenplay - Sense and Sensibility) stars as Vivian Bearing, a single-minded English professor, who in the face of imminent death learns the power and importance of simple acts of human kindness.

I don't think it's a surprise ending...