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Wit,
a movie by
Mike Nichols. |
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Wit: A Play the book
by Margaret Edson |
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One of the
conference keynote speakers at Kanuga was teacher/playwright Maggie
Edson who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit that was
also turned into an Emmy winning HBO movie (2001). She was a
delight. It was a wonderful, entertaining, and thought provoking
talk. Much of her talk dealt with the play Wit and most of
the Q&A afterwards had to do with Wit. But I had not seen
"Wit" and did not know anything about it until her talk at Kanuga.
After returning
home from the conference I rented the movie version of Wit on
DVD from Netflix. Incredible movie! If you have not seen the movie
or play, I highly recommend it. Everyone should see this movie. But
be warned: it is a very moving and emotional film that will leave
you emotionally drained.
As described at
Netflix, "Emma Thompson stars as Vivian Bearing, a disciplined,
esteemed English professor dealing with a sensitive issue – her
health. After being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Vivian is forced
to reassess her life and decide what's really important. Wit also
tells the stories of the people Vivian touches, including her
healthcare team. Directed by Mike Nichols."
Emma Thompson was
outstanding portraying the part of Professor Bearing, a renowned
scholar of poet John Donne, struggling with cancer and reflecting on
her life. She enters an aggressive experimental chemotherapy program
at a teaching hospital where she learns, "Once I did the teaching,
now I am taught.” There are only a handful of characters, but they
are all wonderful in bringing different aspects of human character
into contact with Bearing. Bearing can now draw parallels between
her life and Donne’s complex and often difficult poetry.
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Irony is a literary device that will necessarily be
deployed to great effect.
I ardently wish this were not so. I would prefer
that a play about me be cast in the
mythic-heroic-pastoral mode; but the facts, most notably
stage-four metastatic ovarian cancer, conspire against
that. The Faerie Queene this is not.
And I was dismayed to discover that the play
would contain elements of . . . humor.
I have been, at best, an unwitting
accomplice. (She pauses.) It is not my intention to give
away the plot; but I think I die at the end.
They've given me two hours.
If I were poetically inclined, I might employ a
threadbare metaphor -- the sands of time slipping
through the hourglass, the two-hour glass.
Now our sands are almost run;
More a little, and then dumb.
Shakespeare. I trust the name is familiar.
At the moment, however, I am disinclined to
poetry.
I've got less than two hours. Then: curtain.
From the book
Wit:
A Play by Margaret Edson
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And the perspective
that Mike Nichols used to film the movie was wonderful. In her talk,
Maggie said that Nichols filmed it in a way to capture the feel of
an actor on a stage interacting with the audience, and that is
exactly what he did. Much of the screen time has Bearing talking
directly to the camera – as if in conversation with the audience.
There are several flashback scenes where Bearing is reflecting on
different parts of her life with the image of Bearing of the present
alternating with Bearing of the past. In a scene where she is
explaining how she first took an interest in words, we see her with
her father as a child. As the scene unfolds the child’s image is
replaced with the adult image – a wonderful portrayal of Bearing’s
reflection on her life.
If you like live
performance and wonderful acting, this movie captures it. Yes, it
deals with life and death issues, but it deals with many other
issues as well – quality of life, respect, human dignity. It also
presents hard lessons and choices about life without presenting
direct answers, giving the viewer plenty to think about long after
the movie has ended.
"A one-of-a-kind experience: wise,
thoughtful, witty and wrenching."
– Vincent
Canby,
The New York Times Year in Review |
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ecva.org