Marvin's Room (1996)

Director:

Jerry Zaks

Writers (WGA):

Scott McPherson (play)
Scott McPherson (screenplay)

Release Date:

8 February 1997 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A story about the years that keep us apart... And the moments that bring us together.

Plot:

A leukemia patient attempts to end a 20-year feud with her sister to get her bone marrow.

Plot Keywords:

Leukemia | Nursing Home | Doctor | Fire | House

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Meryl Streep	...	Lee
Leonardo DiCaprio	...	Hank
Diane Keaton	...	Bessie
Robert De Niro	...	Dr. Wally
Hume Cronyn	...	Marvin
Gwen Verdon	...	Ruth
Hal Scardino	...	Charlie
Dan Hedaya	...	Bob
Margo Martindale	...	Dr. Charlotte
Cynthia Nixon	...	Retirement Home Director
Kelly Ripa	...	Coral
John Callahan	...	Lance
Olga Merediz	...	Beauty Shop Lady
Joe Lisi	...	Bruno
Steve DuMouchel	...	Gas Station Guy (as Steve Dumouchel)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief language.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG-13 (certificate #34951) | South Korea:12 | Australia:M | Argentina:Atp | Austria:6 | Belgium:KT | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:6 (bw) | Mexico:B | Netherlands:AL | Norway:7 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Canada:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Disney-MGM Studios, Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA

Company:

Scott Rudin Productions

Trivia:

Sigourney Weaver, Anjelica Huston and Kathleen Turner were all considered for the role ultimately played by Diane Keaton.

Goofs:

Continuity: As Meryl Streep’s character is packing her suitcase in a hurry, she grabs an article of clothing off the wall and the clock can be seen falling. In the next scene she is grabbing another article of clothing off the wall and the clock is back in place.

Quotes:

Hank: Most of the time I just keep to myself. I think like what it would be like to be... someone else.

Movie Connections:

References The Jungle Book (1967)

Soundtrack:

Concerto in A Major, Allegro Molto

Beyond the conventions of the tear-jerker

This 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.