(2001) "Brevity is the soul of wit," yet in this allegory of the soul, "to be secluded eternally" from one's former self with only doubt and fear to face the darkness demands something other than perseverance, a willingness to yield.

Professor of 17th-century English poetry, specializing in the immortality of John Donne to English-speaking culture, Vivian Bearing (Emma Thompson), 48 and unmarried, lacking a life outside of literature, has advanced metastatic ovarian cancer. Her oncologist, Dr Harvey Kelekian (Christopher Lloyd), recommends an aggressive, experimental chemotherapy regimen - eight cycles over eight months at full dose - relying on her "resolve to withstand pernicious side effects … for contribution to our knowledge."

As she (intermittently addressing the audience) takes us on her intimate journey into her "valiant struggle with death," she experiences flashbacks: a discussion about metaphysics and punctuation in Donne's poetry - "it is not wit … it is truth" - with her college professor, Evelyn "E.M." Ashford (Eileen Atkins), who insisted on "uncompromisingly scholarly standards" and spending some time outside the library; a moment when five-years-old with her father (Harold Pinter), asking about the word "soporific" from Beatrice Potter's children's story; a few occasions while teaching her students in class.

For a long while she attempts to retain her sense of humor and wit - commenting to us on how everyone asks, "How are you feeling today?," regardless of how she looks, expecting to be asked the same when she's dead - during the growing horror (nausea and vomiting, going bald), "steadfast, resolute … distinguishing myself in illness": "I'm learning to suffer."

Her vocabulary takes a turn toward the Anglo-Saxon while insisting on learning the medical jargon of her disease and treatment: "I want to know what the doctors mean when they anatomize me." The pelvic exam from young Dr Jason Posner (Jonathan M. Woodward), a former student in one of her literature courses, is "thoroughly degrading."

Brilliant and enthusiastic in his description of research (cancer challenges the best minds in medicine with its "immortality in culture") but lacking at the common touch when dealing with his patients - ordinary, mortal humanity - Dr Posner's abrupt, antiseptic, clinical bedside manner reminds Vivian of her own uncompromising, distanced attitude with her students. He tells Miss Bearing's primary nurse, Susie Monahan (Andra McDonald), how the class he'd taken from her had been like boot camp, dealing with layers of complexity, preparing one for mortal combat between sin and salvation.

Susie, who offers Vivian (having no visitors until near the end) the only human kindness during her long ordeal, defends her final wish of DNR like an avenging angel.

Placed in isolation following the eradication of her immune system (vulnerable to contact with any contagious miasma), she muses upon the paradox of "My treatment imperils my health" as analogous to the puzzles of Donne's daunting poems. "Death, be not proud, though some have called thee/ Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;/ … One short sleep past, we wake eternally,/ And Death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die!"

The teleplay for this gripping HBO-television production, based on a play by Margaret Edson, was written by Emma Thompson and director Mike Nichols.

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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