| Product Summary | | Publisher: HBO | | Format: DVD | | UPC: 00026359178122 | | Buy.com Sku: 40156970 | | Item#: VQNRQ4 | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25668 | | Category Keywords: Cable Original Death Poetry | | Rating: NR |
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| | | It appears to be a matter of life and death.
Features: DVD
Based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Margaret Edson, Wit features the Academy Award winning actress Emma Thompson in a movie directed by Academy award-winning director Mike Nichols. Vivian Bearing is an English Professor with a biting wit that educates but also alienates her students. With her teaching and life both rigidly under control, Vivian would never let down her defenses, until the day comes when they are taken down for her. Diagnosed with a devastating illness Vivian agrees to undergo a series of procedures that are brutal, extensive and experimental. For eight months her life must take an uncharted course. No longer a teacher, but a subject for others to study, Vivian Bearing is about to discover a fine line between life and death that can only be walked with wit.
"One of the finest films...in recent years, on big screen or small." People Magazine
"It reminded me just how strong movies can be." Ebert & Roeper And The Movies
"Fractures the funny bone, then the heart. It triumphs on every level." Los Angeles Times
Editor's Note
Margaret Edson's Pulitzer-winning script is faithfully adapted to the small screen by director Mike Nichols and star Emma Thompson in this HBO special. Thompson plays Vivian Bearing, a professor of 17th Century poetry specializing in "the Holy Sonnets of John Donne." The intellect is everything to Vivian--which is why, when she is diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer--"there is no stage five"--she agrees to undergo aggressive chemotherapy in the name of cancer research. "You must be very tough," her doctor tells her, and Vivian is nothing if not tough--a tough professor who is tough on her students. Yet as her treatment--and her cancer--progresses, Vivian finds that what she needs most isn't the cold rationality with which she's lived her whole life and which is amply evidenced by the hospital staff attending her, but the simple human kindness shown by her primary nurse and her former mentor. This beautiful meditation on death and humanity is shot in close-ups that linger on Emma Thompson's spare, emotionally naked performance. Nichols's sure-handed direction brings out both the script's own wit and its poignancy.
| Features | Cast & Crew Bios | | Chapter Selections | | Audio: English & Spanish Dolby Digital | | 16x9 Letterbox | | Subtitles: English, Spanish, French |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: HBO |
| Release Date: 6/1/2004 |
| Running Time: 99 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2001 | | Catalog ID: 91781 | | UPC: 00026359178122 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Emmy (2001) | | | Emma Thompson, Nominee, Outstanding Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or Movie | | | Audra McDonald, Nominee, Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or Movie |
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| | Professional Reviews | USA Today
"...The Thompson-Nichols script is full of ironies and droll asides, delivered, of course, by an actress with few betters when it comes to delivering the gently mordant dialogue..." 09/14/2001 p.8EEBERT AND ROEPER 0 of 10
One of the best 10 films of the year. Two Thumbs Up!
USA TODAY 0 of 10
"Four Stars! A movie to cherish."
PEOPLE 0 of 10
"One of the finest films in recent years, on big screen or small."
NEW YORK TIMES 0 of 10
"If you miss this, you miss a rare experience."
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