MARVIN'S ROOM
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1997 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Two sisters are reunited after many
years when one needs the help of the other. They
discover that ironically the sister with the richer
life is the one who has sacrificed more for her
family. The story telling is uneven, but the
message will certainly be deeply felt by some
segments of the audience. In the end this is a sad
and gentle story even if its message is a little
trite. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 17 positive, 4 negative, 6 mixed
MARVIN'S ROOM was originally a play produced first in Chicago and then in New York. Scott McPherson adapted his own play into a screenplay before dying of AIDS at thirty-three. He died five years ago and now Jerry Zaks has directed a film version of the play. The film version is a comedy drama that is getting some positive attention and an Academy Award nomination for Diane Keaton, though I have to say it is not my sort of film and so I may not be the best person to judge it. Lee and Bessie (played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton respectively) are two sisters who have been separated for two decades. Lee has gone off to find herself and has since raised two children, the disturbed Hank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his studious younger brother Charlie (Hal Scardino) whose spare time, at least for the course of the film, seems to be taken up reading 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. Lee is so self-centered, colorful, and tough it is surprising the role did not go to Cher. Bessie is more a warm and loving person who has spent the year unfulfilled, taking care of her soap-opera-loving Aunt Ruth (Gwen Verdon) and her senile, long-dying father Marvin (Hume Cronyn). As Bessie tells her doctor, "My father has been dying for twenty years, slowly, so I won't miss anything." Each sister has problems as Hank burned down Lee's house and has been committed to a mental institution. Bessie has recently been diagnosed with leukemia. Bessie needs a bone marrow transplant from someone with the right kind of marrow so Lee has arranged a leave for Hank and the two of them and Charlie have driven down from Ohio to Bessie's home in Florida to test if they have the right marrow type. Hank, who never realized that he had an aunt is first alienated from Bessie, then discovers that in many ways she is a kindred spirit.
It is remarkable that Keaton would allow herself to take such an unglamorous role. Bessie is starting to show the signs of aging and her disease. Her teeth look bad and her hands look like those of an elderly woman. Streep is abrasive and usually at odds with her sons, particularly Hank. Robert DeNiro, who produced the film along with Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal, plays a role as Bessie's doctor and his role seems to be one of the most ill-considered touches of the film. He seems less than totally competent and something of a buffoon. It is surprising that Keaton would choose such a misfit to treat her for something like leukemia, placing her life in his hands, The combination of his distressing diagnosis and his comic behavior just does not seem to work in the film. The same unevenness comes later in the film as Bessie is telling a very humorous story to Lee only to have us realize that the story is one of the great tragedies of her life and is one she would be unlikely to be laughing about.
MARVIN'S ROOM is one of a spate of female bonding films we have seen of late, and not really one of the best. Like Bessie's life, the film really goes nowhere in specific, but it picks up texture along the way. It is not the kind of film I feel I can judge really well. The theme of fulfillment through service to others and forgiveness is one that could have been taken directly from the Boy Scout Handbook. Certainly what is deep and meaningful to one person will be trite to another. For me this film leaned heavily to the hackneyed, but admittedly there were those in the audience who were touched by the film's message.
For the right audience this was probably a moving film but I was not that audience and I can give it only a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
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