Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Bob Pr. 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.

secondtake Wit (2001)Dying gracefully is difficult under any circumstance, and nearly impossible without faith. Having to die in a hospital cancer ward only makes it harder, and more normal. Being smart, and rational, and so-called "strong" through it all is admirable, yet no help in the end. There is dwindling hope, and even the hospital staff is largely out for its own survival, defending statistics and research over compassion.This sounds horrible, and yet this is the truth for many who die in hospital. And for Vivian Bearing, a John Donne scholar of some genius, this is a test of survival and maybe, if possible, comprehension. Both will turn out to be elusive. Director Mike Nichols and actress Emma Thompson manage a tight masterpiece around this very depressing subject. Both are astonishing, and Thompson goes all out, shaving her head for the production (as did her predecessors for the stage productions of Wit the previous two years). Without question it is Thompson's convincing, virtuosic presence that makes the movie so poignant, and so devastating.Thanks to Nichols, there are film-making sleights of hand throughout that add to both the artfulness and the richness of the experience. It's odd to think of the film as elegant, but the moving in and out of flashbacks, sometimes with the character out of place in time (once, Bearing is a child at home in a flashback but it is played by the dying woman in a hospital gown) is superbly well done. The closeups on tormented faces, the long long takes as Bearing gives herself to soliloquy, the slipping from one mode to another, from sadness to humor, all of this builds and compounds. By the end, if you are not a blubbering mess, you are probably in shock, and it sneaks up on you. The filming becomes transparent, even with all its effects. Amazing stuff. Besides, Bearing, who is 90 percent of the film, there are side characters, notably a nurse (Audra McDonald) who truly understands that sliver of existential pain her patient is going through, and a series of doctors who do not. And there is Bearing's former teacher, a much older woman, and a Donne scholar, too, who understands there are more important things in life than even John Donne.And there is the central character of Donne himself, who pervades it all. Donne, who created a complex literature during Shakespeare's time, famously writing the Holy Sonnet X (Death, be not proud) and writing many "conceits" which were a complex way of dealing with things indirectly. Unfathomable death, of course, is more easily approached roundabout, and Donne's lyrical brilliance in the face of the impossible is exactly what Vivian Bearing thought would help her own confrontation with the end. Nothing survives, however. Except experience, which is held out here like a trial for those of us willing, and still alive. This is a tough tough movie to watch. It will ruin your night, but it's highly recommended, highly, as great art, as necessary pain.

cozycats5 The movie paints a vivid picture of a hospital where confronting a patient's death is second to experiments.Vivian is an 'experiment' dying alone. I can still recall the relief on the face of my mother when I brought up her imminent death. She was afraid of making ME fearful. I was privileged to share my mother's dying. She shared moments of regret, painful happenings and joyful events. It was one of the best things I have done as a human being.Vivian is clearly relieved to 'know the score' when Susie tells her that medicine will not save her. Susie gives the dying Vivian, medicine of compassion. She touches her and thereby acknowledges her as a human being.Enter the professor who leads Vivian to the moment of death. There is no need for intellectual poetry or sparring. Instead, the professor lies on the death bed holding and supporting her friend. Tears fall from Vivian's eyes, the professor merely confirms the difficulty. The children's story is read and the professor offers her opinion - It is an allegory of a soul. We do not know if Vivian supports this statement. We only know that she dies with the knowledge that she is loved."Out of the mouth of babes," is a scriptural quote that confirms the wit of simplicity. I, personally, needed the bunny story. However, many children's stories have incisive clues to live's mysteries.I am puzzled about the negative comments. Have any of these writers witnessed dying? Why do so many people negate the virtues of kindness, sympathy, touch, love, etc with weakness or by a wave of his/her hand dismiss it as 'boring.' This was not a boring movie. If you saw it this way, you missed the point. Come back, say 10-20 years from now and review it again.

Superunknovvn There's not much I can write about it. It speaks for itself so eloquently. The script is just brilliant. It settles the score on science, emotionless doctors and people who set the wrong goals for themselves in life. It's a movie that makes you think. With lots of wit and even more heart. Like the main character does in the end, "Wit" finds the right balance between intellect and pure, brutal human emotion. Emma Thompson is astounding. The rest of the cast is, too. Well, as I've said, there's really not much to add to "Wit". Just go and see it. It may change your perception of life for a few days. At least that's what it did to me.