Wit

Released 2001
Reviewed June 30, 2002
Stars Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins, Audra McDonald, Jonathan M. Woodward, Harold Pinter
Directed by Mike Nichols

"You have cancer." Wit opens with this ominous statement and starts us down a harrowing journey of ovarian cancer. Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson) is a highly respected professor of 17th century poetry, and she's in stage 4 of ovarian cancer. She tells us "there is no stage 5." This is a movie about an intelligent woman, who decides to spend her remaining months as a guinea pig at a research hospital with little hope for recovery. Being an academic herself, she appreciates the pursuit of knowledge and gives herself to the slightly ghoulish Dr. Kelekian (Christopher Lloyd). Kelekian is a cancer researcher, who's a bit too excited in the opening scene to have another body to experiment on. He senses strength in Vivian and ominously recommends she take the full doses of his experimental chemotherapy drugs. It will be difficult, he says, but it must be done.

There's a point later in the film where Vivian is placed in an isolation room, because her immune system has been destroyed by the chemotherapy. It's symbolic of how she has chosen a path in life in which she has isolated herself from other people. She didn't marry, and she has no real friends. She was an only child, and she's had no family since her parents passed away. She's an unemotional woman, who has chosen books over people. There's a flashback which shows her mentor, E.M. Ashford (Eileen Atkins), critiquing her college paper and essentially calling it emotional garbage. After all, they're reading John Donne. If she wants to read a flowery hack, she can read Shakespeare. Donne is a metaphysical poet who wrote about the connections between life, death, and the afterlife, and there's no room for schoolgirl emotions here. Vivian seems to take this advice to heart, so to speak, and lets it rule her life, but there's just something wrong with a doctorate of poetry who has no room for emotions. There are many types of poetry, but one of its purposes is to provide a way to convey human emotions through language. Good poetry punches you in the gut. It goes through your brain to touch your soul. John Donne's poetry is wonderfully brilliant, but it mostly exists on an intellectual level. Vivian would have done well to appreciate Shakespeare and allow her emotional core to be awakened.

One of the major themes of the film is how patients are treated by their doctors and the staff. If you've spent any time in hospitals, you'll recognize the way Vivian is treated. You'll recognize the myriad of interns attending humiliating tests and repeating the same procedures, and how they come in and discuss your condition as if you weren't there. I know it's extremely important to train young doctors, but that doesn't make it any easier for the patients. In this case, the situation is much worse than normal, because Vivian's in a research hospital. For the most part, she's treated by the impersonal intern, Jason (Jonathan M. Woodward), who was a former student of hers. He's the type who talks about how good her class looked on his resume, and how he took it because he was determined to get an A in each of the three most difficult classes offered. He never talks to her about the content of her class or about what he learned from her. It was just another challenge to be tackled, and it's one of many examples of the disconnect between him and his "test subject." I have to believe Jack Kervorkian (is Kelekian a play on this name?) has a better bedside manner than Jason.

There have been other films about the dehumanizing process of treating cancer patients, most notably The Doctor with William Hurt. I was also reminded of Julia Sweeney's great one-woman show God Said Ha!, in which she describes the process of terminal cancer in regard to her brother's experience. It's a terrifying, painful process that has only one outcome. Because of that, a movie like this needs to have a strong, detached protagonist who can endure the process without incessant whining or complaining. I think a person going through something like this has every right to do those things, but it would alienate the viewer. Instead, we must be given someone who refuses to feel sorry for herself, so she can win our sympathy. Can you imagine a whiner like Pauly Shore with cancer? To put it mildly, it wouldn't work. Wit also makes the wise choice of keeping its sentimentality to a minimum. Just having Emma Thompson in the lead role with her quiet reserve is half the battle, but the film also knows when to allow a little heart-tugging to creep in. Wit strikes an excellent balance here.

The big lesson of the film is that Vivian was a highly respected scholar, but she wasn't loved. She willingly chose this path, and we watch as she learns she made a mistake. I would think when you're dying in a hospital bed, the important aspects of life must become crystal clear. They certainly did for Vivian, and it's painful to see her go through her struggle alone. The film's big catharsis comes when she receives her one visitor. Her mentor arrives to find her near the end and asks if she would like to hear some of John Donne's poetry, but it's too late for metaphysical musings. It's time for humanity and "The Runaway Bunny," with its simple story of a mother who loves her child. It's a very moving scene. Life passes so quickly, and the little ones grow up and move away in a handful of heartbeats. I don't want to come to the end and realize I didn't spend enough time with my wife and kids. Work is constantly demanding more and more and more from us, but I don't want to end up like Vivian. A film like this can serve to help us examine our values and life, which is an important task since we only get one shot at it. In the end, I know I won't be wishing I had spent more time at the office. Given the choice between being highly respected at work and being loved by family and friends, there's no contest. I'd much prefer to die a loved man.

"Truth sits upon the lips of dying men." -Matthew Arnold

Reviewed by Bill Alward
June 30, 2002
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