Wit

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly moving, rich, and beautiful.
Review: Emma Thompson delivers an amazing performance in Wit. It is easy to see why she is regarded as one of the best actors of our generation.

Emma plays a university professor, who is suddenly striken with a destructive type of cancer.

What follows is an amazing experience. We see a woman torn down. We see a woman ripped from her world and placed into a life of pain, and likely death. We see that she can be self assured, competent, and sometimes rude.

We also see that she can cry. This is a perfect adaptation of the human experience. We see that life is filled with pleasures and pains, and that we need to cherish every moment.

This film leaves the viewer with a sense of emptiness, a sense of pain and sadness. But we also walk away with a little more understanding. We walk away with a new perspective. That, I think, should be the goal of all film.

Rating:
Summary: beyond a film
Review: this is not a movie. this is the contemplation of life and death that is beyond our control as humans. this movie, shows through the life of Prof. Bearing (emma), no matter how hard you are yourself, we cannot run from death. and she gives in, almost serenly. she puts up her fight, and knew ultimately she was going. the fact that the film, is directed towards the audience the entire time, makes it a movie to be watched by yourself, and i promise you... you will cry.

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: This movie has surpassed anything I've ever seen for quality and compassion. Emma has the most subtle facial expressions and tones of expression that absolutely sell the story, and break my heart each time I see it. It's also ironic to realize that a line she states early in the movie is played out at the end; a very important point of how one is treated.
I immediately bought several copies for gifts.

Rating:
Summary: Reality at its best!
Review: Emma Thompson gave the performance of a lifetime in this simultaneously stark and wonderfully tender portrayal of a woman facing her mortality while her body deteriorates from the treatments that could possibly save her. Every phase of this story from diagnosis to death were so accurate and so real. Anyone who has witnessed such horrors can attest to the fact that Ms. Thompson could not have played this role any better. She was absolutely magnificent. The supporting cast was superb, also. I was especially touched by Audra McDonald who is well known for singing beautifully on the Broadway stage. I was pleasantly surprised to watch her reach deep within as Nurse Susie to bring some truly poignant moments to life. Despite the fact that this film was,literally, stunning at times as well as sad, I can honestly say that I will watch it again. If you appreciate great works of art, this film is one that you should see. Anytime every nuance of a situation can be captured (whether it is a facial expression or a ragged breath)in just the right places,you're watching something quite extraordinary. I kept seeing that over and over again in "Wit."

Rating:
Summary: Superb
Review: WIT was broadcast on BBC2 TV last night (Great, no commercial breaks). Having never seen it before and as someone dealing with another form of terminal illness (HIV), I was interested to see how the film would combine Death with wit.

It exceeded my expectations. A beautiful, poignant and remarkable film. I for one, felt uplifted, emotional and clearer about my own destiny. Also the musical score fitted the pace, darkness and emotions perfectly.

Rating:
Summary: Wit. It certainly is.
Review: Upon first viewing Wit you will become encompassed almost immediately, enveloped in a voyeuristic sense. The central character, "Vivienne", is portrayed perfectly by Emma Thompson as a fiercely respected scholar at an "Ivy League" university, teaching the arts of poetry. As a consummate professional Vivienne is harsh and abrasive, demanding perfect understanding in her classes. No leeway. The story unfolds as Vivienne is diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer and follows the merciless downward spiral to her death. When considering the subject matter, it is surprising that Emma Thompson's running narrative through the film is humorous and eloquent. Yet at times heart wrenching. I challenge you to remain composed in the final scenes as vivienne regresses back to childhood. I would not dream of ruining the actual content of the film for you, only to say that you will not watch a more poignant, painstakingly simple, brutal film this year. Or any year for that fact.

Niall Emmett.

Rating:
Summary: Undying Dignity.
Review: I just tried to write a review of this just re-watched film, from the Pulitzer Prize winning play, and I got all tangled up. So, I'm not going to go into "the story." Just watch this brilliant, moving film about the regimented, respected but feared English professor, whose world is taken from her, when she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Narrated throughout by her character, the brilliant Emma Thompson takes us through her progressive deterioration and loss of control amidst the sometimes indifference of the medical profession. Audra McDonald is wonderful also as the nurse, Susie, who, though a total professional, is not only the voice of compassion, but the keeper of Thompsons "Professor Barrie's" dignity, when she can no longer defend it for herself. She is a perfect contrast to the often all to real portrayal of the fresh-faced new doctor, played by Jonathan Woodward, who effectively conveys the preoccupation with stats, data, etc...in his eagerness to "analyze", forgetting there's a human being in that bed to which the stat chart is attached. The scene near the end, where Thompson/Barrie is visited by her grand-motherly former professor, who proceeds to cradle her in her hospital bed and tenderly read a childrens story to her, and bids her good bye, is one of the most moving scenes I've ever experienced. It is not an easy film to watch. Having just lost my life-long friend, who died at 47, in hospice, it was especially poignant. But, if you watch one film, watch "Wit." It is beyond being labeled as mere entertainment, and, though the subject matter is in itself depressing, the film is not. It is one of those increasingly very, very rare films that will greatly move you. And, though you pretty much know from the first words spoken in the film where it is headed, it is ultimatley life affirming, and very touching in its conveyance of the dignity of the human spirit. Easily one of the most intelligent, moving, beautiful movies I've ever seen. Watch it.

Rating:
Summary: Wit, What a smart and clever movie!
Review: Before this movie, I never "got" poetry. I like simple, face-value things. I like movies like Rush Hour 2, The Terminator and Rambo but also enjoy Sense and Sensibility too. However, I was furious for the first 5 mins of this movie. I thought I was watching a preachy movie about the degrading trials and humiliations a person trying to treat ovarian cancer has to go through. But I could not have been more wrong.

That was just the first layer and like an onion, this movie has many layers. It is as deep and as shallow as the viewer wants it to be. Vivian's (Emma Thompson) voice-over gave me goose bumps. One of my favorite lines is "It has always been my custom to treat words with respect". Any she accomplishes that in this movie. No wonder this play won a Pulitzer prize.

Even when Vivian's old professor reads THE RUNAWAY BUNNY to Vivian, there was something to learn there. She calls the book, "A little allegory of the soul." My God, what a way she has with words. And this movie is full of those profound little sayings all through out.

But Emma's full recital of one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets at the end really got to me. I had to rewind towards the beginning of the movie to when Vivian first met her Professor who explained "the Sonnet begins with the valient struggle with death. Calling on all the forces of intellect and drama to vanquish the enemy. But it is ultimately about overcoming the seemingly insuperable barrier separating life, death and eternal life." I could say the same about the meaning of this movie.

Another layer to this movie is about the lesson taught to an unfeeling but the-best-in-her-field professor who showed no mercy to her students and then finds herself at the mercy of the hospital staff who only sees her as another nameless patient to be prodded and poked and to be asked as an afterthought by the cold but highly intellectual Doctor how the patient is feeling when the patient is sitting there vomiting. It starts dawning on Vivian that just being a scholar does not a good Doctor (or a good Professor) make.

When she finally admits that being extremely smart was not enough and that now she saw the value of kindness, I saw (me, the one who doesn't "get" deep stuff) how it all tied in with the sonnet because not even intellect can keep the person out of deaths grasp. Is that deep or what.

To me, this movie was like those "for Dummies" books. Poetry appreciation for Dummies 101. But it also reminds us all that a little kindness goes a long way and being intellectually vain is vanity all the same. Isn't Vanity one of the 7 DEADly sins?

Rating:
Summary: Emma Thompson shines in her darkest hour
Review: This film is simple yet amazing. With a minimal cast and plot--Emma Thompson, the darling of the Merchant & Ivory circle, plays a compassionless English professor (at Penn, I believe) dying of cancer in a hospital--it manages to accomplish so much in terms of raising questions not only about death but of life itself. I don't want to write too much about the movie's details, but I'll just say that the acting is superb and the characters reveal so much with so little--not surprising since the screenplay is based on a stage drama. There are very few films out there like "Wit," and I highly recommend this hidden treasure to any viewer (except the extremely sensitive, I suppose). It is certainly a must-see for academics.

Rating:
Summary: Breath-taking...
Review: One of the most mesmerizing films ever -- and I'd never heard of it. Well, no wonder! Emma Thompson, Mike Nichols -- and Audra McDonnell as a gift to patient care. This is the best film I've seen this year; and I see a lot of movies and read a lot of books -- I just don't keep up with theater, obviously.

This movie is not for the faint-hearted, although I didn't lose it until an unexpected act of kindess and wisdom.