Wit (2001)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Excellent but underrated film

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

I am a registered nurse. I teach nursing and I use this movie in my Nursing courses especially when it comes to dealing with they dying patient. Emma Thompson is so convincing that you actually forget that she is acting and this is only a movie. My students get a lot out of this and it helps them to become more compassionate when doing patient care. I think this is what is missing in health care today- kindness and compassion. Everyone of my students recognizes and wants to identify with the character Susie. I think this should be shown as part of nursing & medical courses. The students need to learn more on "bedside manner" This movie shows many of the mistakes commonly made by health care personnel today.I only wish it was out when I was a student nurse. (waaay back in 1972) R, Dabrow, RN

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.

Wit (2001) (TV), directed by Mike Nichols, is a film that depends for its power on the acting ability of its star. Fortunately, this movie stars Emma Thompson, who is always outstanding and is superb in this role. None of us know how we will respond when we are near death. However, few of us are in the situation in which Thompson's character finds herself. With her caustic wit and scholarly aloofness, Professor Vivian Bearing has cut herself off from friends, students, and colleagues. When she learns she has terminal cancer, she finds herself alone in the world.This moving film benefits from the strong performance of Ms. Thompson, as well as an excellent portrayal by Audra McDonald of a nurse who recognizes that medical personnel can't always cure, but they can always comfort.This is a grim movie, with somewhat hackneyed dialog spoken by the other supporting characters. However, the plot is so riveting, and the acting by Thompson and McDonald is so good, that this is definitely a film worth seeking out.

A witty, sometimes funny, heart wrenching account of a woman's journey through Ovarian Cancer. Certain to make one weep; it is probably the most accurate and poignant visualization of the subject I have ever seen. Anyone wrestling with this dread disease and, for that matter, looking death in the eye, can gain some comfort from this superb Mike Nichols/Emma Thompson film. For that matter; it should be essential viewing for all health professionals; doctors and nurses alike. Emma Thompson is superb. Funny, acerbic, the summation of all human frailty; a woman who is completely in charge of her life until one day... I am surprised that I have never heard of it until tonight when I caught it, quite by accident on Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. Bravo.