Wit (2001)

I am a survivor and when this movie came out I actually though for once a movie that told an accurate view of life thru this horrible time. Boy was I wrong, what a load of crap! I am very surprised that more survivors have to posted the truth! The way her bs came out throughout this whole movie like it was poetry was a load, her overall lack of any knowledge about what people go through while this messes up their entire life was a very poor choice for her. I would have thought that she would have at least studied some patients and took note on what they went thru. Instead Mrs Thompson decided to spew crap and make it seem like deep poetic thoughts. What's load of rubbish this movie was and is, do NOTwaste your money even renting this pure fiction! I wish the academy would have given awards for the worst movies of all time so this could have won in a landslide! What a shame!!!! As a survivor to Mrs Thompson, you should be ashamed!!!!

This is a HBO film starring Emma Thompson. Sad, sad movie about a philosophy professor dying of cancer, AND THE WHOLE TIME SHE'S ALONE. ALONE and dying. And she goes through the most painful clinical trail EVER. Also her doctor is a former student, who's a complete Douche.Oh cancer, this is just sad. It's just so cold and hateful and this film reflects just that. It is very isolated and thought provoking. Emma Thompson is a philosophy professor, one of the best in her field. She does have great monologues however, that are artful and thought provoking...I hate doctors and research after this movie.

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.

This movie is brilliant, but incredibly hard to watch. The entire last thirty minutes I had a lump wedged in my throat, and I couldn't help but cry on three or four occasions. The pain of Thompson's character feels unbearably real. Throughout the film you develop a true understanding of the character, Vivian, and seeing this strong, independent, successful woman reduced to such weakness and vulnerability is very difficult. Yet the trajectory is conducted with such dignity - completely redundant of self-pity. It is incredibly moving.At the heart of it this is a film about human life, scratched to the very bare surface and faced with a number of important and terrifying questions. Definitely worth watching, but be prepared for an extremely difficult 90 minutes.