MARVIN'S ROOM is a character-driven drama based on the Scott McPherson play. Director Jerry Zaks manages to get the best from an all-star cast. Bessie(Diane Keaton)is a care-giving soul that discovers she has her own health dilemma. Bessie takes care of her bedridden father Marvin(Hume Cronyn), who always seems to be nicely dressed right down to his bow tie. Marvin has retired himself to his room. Aunt Ruth(Gwen Verdon)is a handful that is not too damn close reality. She likes to wear a garage door remote around her waist and insists on huge hugs. Bessie is told by her own physician (Robert De Niro)that she has leukemia and needs bone marrow. She is forced to contact her sister Lee(Meryl Streep)with whom she has had a 20-year old feud. Lee, a beautician, seems to be only interested in supporting herself and two sons. Ten-year old Charlie(Hal Scandino)does well to stay sane by ignoring the drama that surrounds him. On the other hand 17 year-old Hank(Leonardo DiCaprio)is earthy and troubled after being institutionalized for burning down the house. There is a lot of emotional ground the two sisters must decide on to discard and what to forgive and forget. The characters are so well defined and its easy to understand where each is coming from. Isn't it great that life allows humor to be found in times of discouragement and ill-fortune.
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evanston_dad16 June 2009This stage to screen adaptation about two estranged sisters attempting a reconciliation after one is diagnosed with cancer is sentimental to the extreme, manipulative beyond forgiveness.....and had me close to blubbering like a baby by the time it was over.
Chalk it up to the fact that I had recently lost a grandmother to cancer, but this film nearly devastated me even as I was mad that it was so maudlin. The fact that it works as well as it does is due largely to the fact that such good actors are cast in it. Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton play the sisters (Keaton is the ill one), and while it would never have occurred to me to put these two actresses together, the decision was inspired. And right before he rocketed to international fame, Leonardo DiCaprio does strong work as Keaton's troubled nephew.
I won't even try to defend this film against those who say it's too schmaltzy to bear, but please let the rest of us enjoy it in blubbery peace.
Grade: A- -
Conork214 September 2012I came across this movie on Netflix and thought I would give it a go! Surely a movie with Meryl Streep and Dianne Keaton wouldn't disappoint! It sure didn't! While the story has been done before in various formats it's the screenplay that makes this movie a real gem. The main three actors really do a great job. But with Streep, Keaton and DiCaprio one would expect nothing less. For me the the late Gwen Verdon steals the show. she really shows how comedy should be done. The scene with the orange is one that stands out. A mixture of comedy and heart wrenching reality showcases how underrated she has been. This for me should have definitely gained a nod in any supporting actress awards. This movie certainly won't change your life but it really does provide you with food for though about love, family and the importance of life! Give it a go. It won't disappoint.
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kev-2213 January 1999This film took this jaded, tough-to-manipulate moviegoer and reduced him to a blubbering mass of water. Instead of the usual over-the-top death scene, the film finds a clever, non-contrived way to end by leaving these characters at a magical moment of mutual understanding. It is one of the most powerful endings I've ever seen in a film, and believe me, I've seen thousands. What I found most remarkable about it was how the film reveals--despite the sisters' major character differences--how similar they really are. Both abandon one part of their family to sacrifice for another part--they each merely take different parts, and that's why Lee's character is not as bad, selfish or one-dimensional as she first seems. Lee's problem was understanding love. Despite all her lovers, Lee (Streep) had to learn the real meaning of love from her spinster sister Bessie (Keaton).
The film is full of irony. One such moment is when Lee, rather tactlessly, says to Bessie that she finally feels as though her life has begun. To which Bessie, who is surely about to die, can only sigh. The greatest irony, of course, is that Lee finds herself at the same juncture she was 20 years prior. Will she choose to sacrifice to care for her sister, just as her sister had chosen to do with her father and aunt? Bessie, in contrast, had come to find that she hadn't "thrown it all away" to care for sick relatives. What first seemed a sacrifice had become transformed, through her own experience, into another valid way of experiencing life. To Lee's perspective, the elders where millstones, hindrances, inconveniences robbed of their humanity--almost the antithesis of life. Yet, behind the eccentricities of Aunt Ruth (Verdon) and other-worldly silence of her chronically ill father Marvin (Cronyn), she had found, and reveled in, their uniquness, their humanness. Making Lee's two sons very different also added complexity and depth to the film. It's obvious that Hank (DiCaprio) is his mother's son, it's just that his mother doesn't realize it. Hank too is at a crucial moment of choice: Will he abandon his selfishness, or will he abandon his familial and moral obligation to help Bessie? And what accounts for the polar opposite behavior of the younger son Charlie (Scardino)? The movie doesn't give an answer. Genetics, environment, relationships and all the other things that make us who we are are complex things. The scriptwriter is smart enough to realize that. Touches of humor keep this from becoming an oppressive Bergmanesque angst-fest, and its patient character development steers it out of obvious soapy (ie. "Terms of Endearment") territory. Although the thing has a sort of TV-movie aesthetic in the staging and the scoring, the writing and acting are everything you'd want. Beautiful. -
eschetic-226 September 2011Small cast, intimate dramas like MARVIN'S ROOM, NIGHT MOTHER or STEEL MAGNOLIAS are among the hardest to adapt from the confines of the stage where the imagination can open the plays ideas up and make what might seem maudlin, real and life affirming to the more realistic form of film where it is harder to see beyond the mundane "bed pan" realities of life. In order to reinvent the best of these - like the plays mentioned above - to the new genre, every break is needed starting with bravura casts who, one hopes, an audience will want to see even "reading the phone book." When a play turns around the characters dealing literally with confrontations with death at the core of the plot as in these three great plays, what HAD been on stage a single set intense evening is frequently "opened up" with all sorts of other locations and events almost as if to distract us from the very issues which we are supposed to be attending to.
On stage and screen MARVIN'S ROOM may well be the best of these three "death plays," all of which started and thrived Off-Broadway (only NIGHT MOTHER made the leap to a Broadway house in its initial production). While, somewhat amazingly (considering that one of the standards of the award is "depiction of American life"), MARVIN'S ROOM was not even a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1992, it did win a number of other accolades which virtually demanded that Hollywood attempt to bring it to the rest of the nation - and they certainly gave it their all starting with the genuinely all star cast which is both the movie's blessing and its curse. It enraptures with the bouquet of bravura performances even while moving focus away from the central "earth-mother" of the family forced to face her own mortality while trying to care for and hold her collapsing family together around her (Diane Keaton's Oscar nomination - the film's only - notwithstanding).
Ultimately, the film gets where the play was going (as well it ought to have, since Scott McPherson had the luxury of adapting his own play - he may have written his screenplay simultaneously with, if not before the tighter stage version, since he died in 1992, the year MARVIN'S ROOM received its Off-Broadway production at Playwrights' Horizons, winning the Outer Critics' Circle and Drama Desk Awards as best Play of the Year), but the power seems to have shifted from the play's revelations themselves to the dazzling performances. It's still well worth taking the trip, but more to appreciate a monument to more than a dozen brilliant stage and screen careers than a revelatory experience on the meaning of humanity in the face of life and death that the play had been.
Do, by all means see the movie. It works. ...but if you ever get a chance to see the play which either suggested it or grew from it, by all means do - it's smaller but even better. -
scottshak_11123 November 2010Marvin's room turned out to be a brilliant movie assisted well by a great performance by some veteran actors like Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro ( although he wasn't the center of attraction as he was the doctor ).
Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton are two sisters who have estranged each other for 20 years and Diane calls upon her sister to take care of their father as she herself realized that she was suffering from Leukemia. Leonardo portrays the character of Hank who does not get along with his mother Meryl on account of her abusive behaviour. Diane Keaton wants Meryl to take care of her Aunt Roth and their father when she would be gone. Meryl portrays a mean woman who is afraid of responsibilities and is troubled by the deliberate acts of her son Hank (Leo). The movie is a beautiful depiction of how Meryl Streep decides to eventually aid her dying sister by stepping into her shoes and taking enough pluck to set things right between herself and Hank.
Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep acted exceptionally well not to forget Leo. Altogether their performance was brilliant. I was touched by the movie. I'd rate it a 7 on 10. It was certainly one of the finest flicks that I've watched. -
moonspinner559 August 2006Neurotic, selfish, chain-smoking Meryl Streep goes to visit estranged sister Diane Keaton--currently the caretaker of their dying father--and all their old grudges come to the fore. Comedy-drama about sad sacks leans heavily on its sentimental trappings, with each character learning a thing or two about "the bonds of family". Despite the fact she obviously isn't a smoker, Meryl Streep is very amusing; Diane Keaton is convincing as a fussy smudge who stops fidgeting every now and then to beam with life; Robert De Niro has an incredibly benign role as a befuddled doctor; Leonardo DiCaprio is good as a sullen teenager (who also gets an education); but Hume Cronyn has a rather insulting role as a stroke-victim (a gratuitously-injected character who seems an after-thought of screenwriter Scott McPherson, adapting his play). This is the kind of tearjerker that aims for your gut but gets you in the teeth. This genre never seems to go out of vogue, and I for one resent it when heartstrings are not just tugged but yanked. However, since it's preconceived how we're supposed to feel about Keaton's character, I would say she still comes through with an interesting performance, garnering the film's sole Oscar nomination as Best Actress. The film certainly has its strengths, yet it's a routine soap opera, not a transcendent one. **1/2 from ****
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yasir61930 November 2018Only watched it because of leo....good movie,great storyline.
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xavrush8915 January 2005It's such a wonderful story, not at all as dreary as one would expect. The late Scott McPherson injected so much humor and heart into this film, it's hard not to just go along with it. Diane Keaton got the Oscar nomination, but Meryl Streep's character drives the film, as she works her way back into a family she turned her back on so she could have a life of her own. She was right to do so, as her sister (Keaton) has become consumed with caregiving for her father and aunt, taking absolutely no time out for herself. The film also features a nice departure for Robert De Niro from his typically heavy roles. That alone is worth seeing, and fans of his typical performances should be forced to watch this.
This quiet film may not have enough action for some, but it is far better than most films dealing with serious illness. The journey these sisters begin is something that has been explored in countless TV movies (think Lifetime), but what separates it is the humor and the character development that makes the viewer wish he/she could stay and watch the family long after the film ends. The film also benefits from the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio, who gives an unlikely nuanced performance as the older son who develops some character and helps his flighty mother grow along with him. The great thing about his presence in the film is that younger viewers (mostly female, probably) will be more likely to see this movie and get something out of it in the process.
Finally, a word about Gwen Verdon and Hume Cronyn. Their contributions to this film are immeasurable. And as already mentioned, it's great that younger viewers can watch this film and get a last look at them in these touching roles and see how charm never fades with age. Cronyn has little to do but lie ill in bed, yet somehow his character remains a focal point. And Verdon's comic relief pairing with the younger son is a real highlight. She also manages a poignant moment or two in a her scenes with Keaton. This truly is an ensemble piece, and it wouldn't have been without their talent. Why I don't yet own a copy of this sweet film is a mystery. -
smatysia25 September 1999Meryl Streep has unparalleled talent. (and no, I don't mean just her much joked-about ability with accents) She constantly takes less than sympathetic parts and gives them a luster few others can, e.g. "The French Lieutenant's Woman", "A Cry in the Dark", Kramer vs. Kramer". Her performance in "Marvin's Room" is another tour de force. Diane Keaton is also marvelous, and DiCaprio is at least playing a character he looks old enough for.
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Libretio29 January 2000MARVIN'S ROOM
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Sound formats: Dolby Digital / SDDS
Jerry Zaks' dry, unobtrusive direction threatens to derail this soapy drama about estranged sisters (Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton) who are reunited when one of them (Keaton) develops leukaemia. However, Zaks keeps things moving at a sprightly pace, and he's well-served by an all-star cast (including Leonardo di Caprio as Streep's rebellious teenage son, and Robert De Niro in a significant cameo as the doctor who diagnoses Keaton's condition). Of them all, however, Gwen Verdon steals the show as a slightly dotty aunt who utters the film's best line ("Which one of you handsome boys is in a mental institution?"). Overall, the characters ring true and their conflicts have an authentic emotional charge, but the film never reaches boiling point and ends ambiguously, with the situation only partially resolved. Fine score by Rachel Portman. -
Bianca-36 August 1998This movie should be reviewed for its great performances from some of the best actors today. Meryl Streep does not fail to shine out as one of the best actresses of all time as an emotionally distraught mother in this tale of hopes, emotions and intense feelings. Keaton, on the other hand portrays her best performance ever, and Leonardo DiCaprio proves that he has talents besides being a heartthrob. This movie really moved me, not because of the story itself but the acting was very realistic....I believe that they all should have received an Oscar nomination. Well done!
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fraghera24 December 2013There is a movie channel at the cable in here, Turkey. They usually air boring movies. Today I was blue and had nothing to do. Opened this channel and realized this movie is starting in 5 minutes. I thought "ehh another silly old TV movie" but when saw Merly Streep and Di Caprio's name, thought that, how come I heart nothing about this movie. Started very good and I started to feel better. This is a warm movie and you can watch with your family. It's really hard to find this kind of sincere American movies nowadays. I loved and thought it ended very early, wish they made it a little longer but cool anyways. Director and everything is very good. Recommended.
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diegogonz-578186 March 2021Great work from Dicaprio, De Niro, and especially Streep certainly make the film watchable, but it still can't save it from feeling like a TV movie of the week. If you're a fan of melodrama... and over 60, then you'll find much to like.
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roland-276 October 1999This film was on the end of Eraser that I taped off Sky Premier, it was purely accidental that I watched it. I started to watch it thinking that it might get me to sleep, but then I found it great. Robert De Niro had all the best lines with his pathetic brother, Bob(Dan Hedaya). Meryl Streep also shone in her screen time with her son, Hank(Leonardo Di Caprio in his best role ever).
I loved the whole dramatic sequences, and found the acting touching and Oscar worthy. Diane Keaton provided all the tears in the film, with the others all providing laughs.
This film was a huge surprise. I don't usually like dramas(although I loved Di Caprio's and De Niro's other film together, This Boy's Life), and I recommend this to everyone who loves good dramas. Rating=4/5 -
Bessie is a middle-aged woman who has been caring for her father Marvin since he had a stroke some twenty years earlier. Marvin is on his back in bed and cannot speak, but he does have a limited understanding when spoken to. Marvin's sister Ruth is also in the household and, while still in possession of her faculties and ambulatory, her life seems to center around what is happening on her favorite soap operas. Bessie finds out that she has leukemia. What to do? Bessie's only hope is for a bone marrow transplant and the only possible donors are her sister Lee, estranged since Marvin's stroke, and Lee's two sons.
Rather than concentrating on the grim details, the focus is on the changes in the family dynamics precipitated by Bessie's illness. Bessie calls Lee and tells her the story and Lee packs up her two sons and takes out from Ohio to Florida. All those years ago Lee and Bessie split over Marvin's illness and care - Bessie took it over and Lee got away as fast as she could. So, a good part of the movie has the sisters dealing with old wounds. A subplot concerns the relationship that develops between Bessie and Lee's rebellious seventeen year old son Hank.
What raises this film above the ordinary is the great cast and some well written scenes. Streep and Keaton are in good form and play well off of each other. There are a lot of awkward and intense moments between them - I particularly liked the scene where they meet each other for the first time in twenty years. Hume Cronyn, as Marvin, never says a word, but his presence is felt throughout the film. Leonard DiCaprio, as Hank, is so good that you wonder if he is playing Hank or just being himself. Playing against type Robert De Niro puts in an appearance as Bessie's somewhat maladroit doctor.
What didn't work for me was the attempted comic relief. Ruth seemed just a bit too ditsy and her pain relief device operating the garage door was forced humor. De Niro's brother's role was solely to interject some dim-witted comments.
Bessie's comment about how privileged she had been to have loved so deeply stuck with me. I had never stopped to think of the delight in loving as something to be valued in itself, requited or not. -
Movie_Muse_Reviews24 November 2006"Marvin's Room" is undoubtedly a solid film that slipped through the cracks during the slough of great films of the mid 90s, getting overlooked in 1996 by "Fargo" and "The English Patient" among a few others. It's sole recognition was an academy award nomination for best actress for Diane Keaton.
Keaton stars as Bessie, a middle-aged woman who has spent her entire life taking care of her father Marvin and Aunt Ruth who both are not mentally sound, who has discovered she has leukemia. Her doctor, played by Robert DeNiro, informs her that her only chance of survival is if she can convince her sister (Meryl Streep) who she has not spoken to in 20 years or nephews Hank (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Charlie who she has never met. The drama that ensues is all built around the family tension, as Streep's character Lee has not spoken with Bessie because she refused to help take care of their father.
Keaton and Streep both deliver fantastic performances, and we even get a taste of pre-"Titanic" DiCaprio. The performances make the movie, which is simply the play put on the silver screen, which comes as no surprise when the playwright, Scott McPherson, is also responsible for the screenplay. Keaton's honesty and innocence due to her living her life as her father's aid are incredibly apparent in everything she does, and Streep clearly lets Lee's roller-coaster ride of different emotions become apparent at every stop.
The film's weaknesses lie mostly in the deeper thematic areas. The symbolism felt much more appropriate for the stage, where from a film perspective there was nothing very active about the plot aside from a few moments. Most of it is dialogue and hitting on themes through character interaction, which is vital in the theatre, but not as effective in film. So, those that love the theatre will find "Marvin's Room" very good for those reasons, but those who have a deeper love of film will find something missing from this story despite the stellar acting and touching story. -
EUyeshima24 January 2007How families fall apart and mend themselves is the point of this star-laden 1996 movie, but stage and TV director Jerry Zaks, screenwriter Scott McPherson, and a trio of fine performances transcend the formulaic aspects to come up with something more resonant. Based on a play by McPherson before he succumbed to AIDS, the semi-autobiographical plot focuses on two estranged, middle-aged sisters. In Florida, mousey spinster Bessie has spent twenty years as caretaker to their ailing father Marvin and their eccentric aunt Ruth. In Ohio, Lee escaped family responsibility to get married and raise two sons in Ohio only to see things fall apart. Lee is on the verge of turning her life around as a licensed cosmetologist when Bessie is diagnosed with leukemia and reaches out to Lee and her sons as potential bone-marrow transplant candidates.
The rest of the movie is mainly about how the sisters cope with each other when they reunite and what they do to deal with the inevitable. Intriguingly, while the soap opera elements are strictly by-the-numbers, there is a persistent undercurrent of black comedy that effectively blunts the potential sentimentality of the piece. It also helps that Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton play the sisters. As the embittered, guilt-ridden Lee, Streep moves easily back into blue-collar, Silkwood territory, and she unapologetically shows the edginess and jealousy of her self-centered character. However, it's a vanity-free Keaton who really radiates as Bessie finding inner strength and contentment under increasingly dire circumstances. A year before "Titanic", Leonardo di Caprio effectively plays the last of his juvenile hellions as Lee's oldest son Hank, a textbook example of teenaged, pyromaniac angst.
The rest of the cast is fine in limited turns - Robert DeNiro (one of the producers as well) as the bumbling Dr. Wally; Dan Hedaya as his even more pixilated brother Bob; Gwen Verdon as wild-eyed, soap opera-obsessed Aunt Ruth; Hal Scardino as Hank's self-controlled little brother Charlie; and Hume Cronyn, who is forced to play Marvin with severely limited expression. There are predictable moments throughout, but some surprise and a few actually enthrall, including a seriocomic scene of quiet reconciliation when Bessie recalls the drowning death of her open-mouthed carny boyfriend. There are no extras with the 1999 DVD release. -
=G=1 September 2003"Marvin's Room" tells of two long estranged middle aged sisters; one who's spent 20 years caring for her bed-ridden father in Florida (Keaton) and the other, a hair stylist who's raised two boys in Ohio (Streep). When one is diagnosed with leukemia, the sisters reunite and begin long over due reconciliations. "Marvin's Room" is a warmly humorous film which tiptoes around the matter of cancer while telling a sentimental story of a dysfunctional family pulling together in a time of need. An enjoyable, middle-of-the-road dramady with an excellent cast and both Oscar and Globe nominated performances worth a look. (B)
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mrcaw1227 April 2004Marvin's Room (1996) Dir: Jerry Zaks Finally a movie of substance that harkens back to Keaton's earlier successes. Keaton co-stars with drama heavyweight Meryl Streep as two estranged sisters who reunite to deal with Keaton's recently diagnosed leukemia. Keaton's character is hopeful that Streep or one of her two screen sons can be a bone marrow donor for her and thereby possibly save her life. Meanwhile, Keaton has been caring for the sister's long suffering and long dying father, Marvin (Hume Croyn). Adding a little box office punch to the flick is current heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio as one of Streep's "problem" boys. Though the plot reads like melodrama, and to an extent it is, the movie is fairly subtle and unexpected in its story line choices. If nothing else, one doesn't have the feeling that the writers wrote the screenplay over beers and an episode of Married with Children.
Nominated for Best Actress, Keaton gets to present a more controlled and quiet persona than she usually displays. Streep is typically fine as a used to be good time girl who finally is about to graduate out of beauty school and is having trouble dealing with her sick sister, her dying father and her whacked-out teen son. Definitely worth a view if for no other reason than to fill in the missing Keaton and/or Streep movies you may have missed. And gosh, doesn't Leo look cute! -
Doug-1359 March 2001This is a surprising movie. Considering the subject matter - sickness, old age and mental illness - the film turns out to be very funny and warm. This is due to no small measure by the excellent performances of some of the best actors in Hollywood. Hume Cronyn, whom we've come to expect only good things from, is effective and moving without saying one intelligible thing! Leonardo DiCaprio is perfect as the disaffected son. But the strong, convincing work by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton as long-estranged sisters carries the movie along. Two more treats are the performances of Robert De Niro as a befuddled doctor and Gwen Verdon as a slightly-off-center aunt.
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mark.waltz25 April 2014There is going to be subtle debate for years as to which leading lady steals this film-Golden Globe Nominee Meryl Streep or Oscar Nominee Diane Keaton, playing unlikely sisters reunited after a long estrangement when Keaton discovers that she has leukemia and may need bone marrow. Streep vanished years before in order to prevent herself from being trapped by taking care of their ailing dad (Hume Cronyn), now bedridden, and suffering from all sorts of malady's including obvious dementia. All he does is groan and mumble, making this a very difficult role to watch the beloved Broadway veteran play.
Cronyn's "Cocoon" co-star, Broadway musical diva Gwen Verdon, steals every moment in which she is on screen as his equally ailing sister who has a mechanism implanted in her hip which causes the garage door to either open or close every time she twists it. She's a soap addict who wears a fur and tiara to the wedding of her two favorite characters, played by "All My Children's" Kelly Ripa and John Callahan. Ironically, "All My Children" was the only soap on which Verdon ever appeared. Streep's youngest kid, a bespeckled geek, shows an eerie talent for applying make-up as he prepares Verdon for "the wedding" with subtle hints of what he will grow up to be.
The oldest son, Leonardo DiCaprio, obviously despises his mother, and probably for good reason. Streep plays one of her most unsympathetic characters, and at times, doesn't fully seem comfortable playing this role. Even though she's a cosmetology student and very capable as to what she does, she's far too messed up emotionally to always look so physically well put together. Of course, the character is hiding behind a facade of bitterness, so as Streep pulls away these layers, the character becomes a bit more tolerable even though she's often inconsistent.
Getting away from the "La Dee Da" attitudes she's inhibited in most of the roles she's played since "Annie Hall", Diane Keaton for me make the film pull out its heart. She has given up her own life and romantic possibilities in order to take care of the pathetic Cronyn (who by the way they talk about him should have died years ago) and the dizzy Verdon, and it is obvious from the time she meets the troubled pyromaniac DiCaprio she wants to make up for lost time in getting to know her nephew. When he angrily smacks her hand away from his face during a light caress, you can see her invisible tears flowing, and it is heartbreaking. However, joy takes over when they bond with a wild ride on the beach, and even the lost child DiCaprio plays seems to return to humanity as his heart opens to the aunt he hadn't met until recently.
DiCaprio is a tough nut to crack here, showing an iron shield for long periods of time interrupted by the bleeding little boy inside, not understanding the resentments of his maternal family and aching for his unseen father, a race car driver who abandoned his mother years before. So while this is a very tough film to like, especially when it interrupts the family drama with the presence of the befuddled doctor played by Robert DeNiro, and his idiotic brother (Dan Heydara) who works as his receptionist (after the regular receptionists resigns simply by typing a note which says "I Quit!"), there's some truth in its dissection of the fall of families over the past few decades and how dysfunctions of earlier generations can carry on to the next. -
porazzim421 May 2009I happen to rank this movie as one of Leo's finest. It is definitely not as main-stream as his others, but the content and the acting was brilliant. I am a sucker for movies about dysfunctional families and this one takes the cake. It was so human...there was nothing "Hollywood" about this at all.
Each character has their own emotional turmoil and when Lee comes down with Hank and Charlie, the characters are forced to come to terms with it. Leo delivered a stand-out performance in a cast of film legends. Meryl Streep is also wonderful as Lee, the self-centered mom who left her family behind in search of her own dreams. -
Boba_Fett113829 July 2006This drama was a surprising good one. The story might sound over-dramatic and sappy but the execution of it all is surprising good. The director chooses an approach with lots of humor present. It makes "Marvin's Room" a well balanced drama that despite its heavy subject never feels overdone- or gets too heavy to watch.
It's sort of too bad that this movie is always sort of regarded to as a Leonardo DiCaprio-flick. Its a movie from the period when he wasn't a well known male Hollywood lead yet. The mainstream audience had yet to discover him, which they did a year later with "Titanic", while certain smaller groups of movie viewers already discovered this great young talent in movies such as "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", "The Quick and the Dead" and "Romeo + Juliet". This movie however deserves so much more than just being regarded as as a Leonardo DiCaprio-flick. I'm sure of the fact that this movie is regarded as such, scares lots of people of from watching this movie (mainly "Titanic" haters). Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio is in the movie but no he doesn't play the main lead, or a pretty boy, which he more often did in his later movies, which are the reason why he also has so many haters all over the world. So really, if you're not a fan of DiCaprio's later movies (after 1997) you'll most likely still enjoy this movie. So please, just give this movie a chance, it's certainly worth it.
I was not sure what to expect from this movie. The story sounded over-dramatic. It's the sort of story were one problem is not enough. Basically every characters has several problems and issues. A movie like this can easily go over-the-top or it can get too sappy and overdone. I'm glad to say that the movie however surprised me and surpassed my expectations. Because of the fact that the movie is told with quite some humor, it doesn't make the movie an heavy one. Sure, there are plenty of dramatic scene's still present in the movie but it all is extremely well balanced all. It never gets too heavy but it also never gets too humorous either. It makes both the drama and the humor work out really well in the movie.
It also certainly helps the movie that there are lots of stars present in it. They make the characters and events feel more likely and realistic. Meryl Streep is perhaps one of the best actresses of all time, although this role is certainly not her best one but I think that says more about Streep herself rather than her performance in this movie. Of course Diane Keaton is no light-weight either. She delivers a powerful performance. Also Leonardo DiCaprio shows that he is more than just a pretty face. A smaller role is there for Robert De Niro. It's the sort of role basically everyone could play and it doesn't make a very big or lasting impression, so don't expect much of him when watching this movie. The only reason why he plays a small role in this movie is because he also was one of the producers for this movie.
But if you take away all those great actors, would this still had been such a good movie to watch? I don't think so. At certain moments while watching this movie I even wondered why all those famous actors ever agreed to be in this movie. I think that the movie had some great casting persons and some powerful, influential producers. It probably also had to do with the director Jerry Zaks who was a very successful award winning Broadway director prior to this movie. (Perhaps he also had already worked with some of the stars out of this movie?) But really, the story on its own is not good or powerful enough to carry the entire movie or make it an incredible interesting or emotional powerful one. So on its own, the movie is a pretty empty and formulaic one but it is made interesting, good and powerful thanks to the wonderful cast and refreshing directing and approach by Jerry Zaks.
Of course this movie is mainly for the lovers of drama movies but everyone should be able to appreciate and enjoy this movie thanks to its approach of the heavy themes and the professional cast playing the characters.
7/10
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planktonrules16 September 2015If you are looking for a feel-good film or something nice, do NOT watch "Marvin's Room". It's incredibly depressing and awful and is a lot like watching the life of Job as every possible awful thing happens to poor, sweet Bessie in the picture. It's so bad that at times I felt like cringing as I watched the film.
Here's the low-down in this god-awful film. Bessie (Diane Keaton) is the sole caretaker for her father, Marvin (Hume Cronyn), who has been bedridden, brain damaged and unable to talk after a stroke which occurred many, many years ago. Bessie is also the caretaker for her mentally ill and wacky Aunt Ruth (Gwen Verdon). Bessie is a selfless and nice person but she has no life apart from these two. Now, she's just learned that she has Leukemia and may die unless she gets a bone marrow transplant.
Bessie's sister, Lee (Meryl Streep) is a selfish train wreck. She's clueless, self-absorbed and a horrible person. She never offered Bessie any help in caring for these sick people and they haven't spoken in nearly two decades--and expecting any change in this is very unrealistic. Not surprisingly, her oldest son, Hank (Leonardo DiCaprio) is seriously disturbed...however, he's SO disturbed that when the film begins, he deliberately burns their house to the ground. As a result, he's committed to a mental institution. There is a much younger son- -an oblivious lost soul.
It turns out that there's trouble finding a bone marrow match for Bessie and she has to rely on her sister and her family. Lee takes Hank out of the mental hospital to which he's been committed in order to take him cross country to see if he is a match. She DOESN'T tell Hank this and based on Hank's seriously disturbed and crazy behaviors, it sure ain't likely that he'll agree when he finds out the truth. Now, this incredibly sick group of weirdos are all brought into the same home and the viewer is wondering what the heck sort of awfulness will happen next.
The acting is fine in this film. In addition to the folks I mentioned, Robert De Niro is also in the film...but with all the craziness he does get a bit lost. That's because the script is just too much--too much craziness and the ending is WAY too much because it makes little sense. It is also so painful to watch and if you come from a rather dysfunctional background, it might really scare you away or remind you of your own issues (for good or bad..but probably bad). And, many of us watch movies to escape--not to feel unpleasant. I myself used to be a family and individual therapist--and the film just reminded me of the worst of the clients I worked with...and that wasn't altogether welcome. Plus how satisfying can it be to sit and watch this long train wreck?! And realistic can an ending be where, miraculously, the problems seemingly just vanish?!
Hard to watch, hard to love. I can see why this wasn't a big money- maker when it debuted.