God Said, 'Ha!'

Julia Sweeney is masterful at communicating her extraordinary ordeal when her brother was diagnosed with cancer. I found myself rivetted to the screen, despite the fact that this is not a traditional film. You feel as if you are listening to a friend recount a terrible nightmare. I was so engrossed in the story I didn't want it to end. A beautiful movie made much more powerful by the fact that it is true. Bravo, Julia Sweeney.

Julia Sweeney's filmed version of her one-woman show is absolutely wonderful.

I first saw it with my husband when he was ill with Stage 4 cancer. I re-viewed it last night, over a year after my husband passed away. Both my husband I loved it when we first saw it (and continued to use the line, "I love my shunt!" until he died), and I loved it just as much, but for different reasons, upon seeing it again.

I found Ms. Sweeney's material to be truly amazing; she managed to capture the horror of the nightmarish "cancer experience" while keeping in touch with the parallel (and often surreal) experience that life does, in fact, go on: Cats still need to be fed, garbage still needs to be taken out, and small incidents do not become less irritating or hilarious just because there's terminal illness in the house.

The fact that Ms. Sweeney is able to find, articulate and share the humor inherent in a horrible, emotionally draining experience is a gift to everyone who sees the show. Her great intelligence and sensitivity toward the subject matter prevents her from descending into sentiment (or worse) -- there are no banal observations or advice about how to deal with terminal illness, no facile, semi-spiritual conclusions about life and death. I think she understands that this kind of bunk (all too common in books and film these days) is at best insulting to anyone who has lived through this kind of experience. Instead, her emphasis on the small, human aspects of living with someone who is terminally ill makes the experience all the more real, and all the more valuable. I know that every time my husband and I had to face a particularly difficult medical procedure, we'd swap lines from Ms. Sweeney's show, and somehow it made it easier to get through it.

And setting aside the subject matter, there's the simple fact that Ms. Sweeney's timing is terrific -- she really knows how to set up a joke and deliver it. These are not bust-your-gut guffaw jokes and anecdotes; these are the kind that manage to get you crying and laughing at the same time. What could be better?

I never heard of this actress before happening to see the show listed on the guide. Sounded interesting so I popped in for a look; what an eye and earful I got. I would have to dig down deep to find an amusing story to bring out of something as awful as the things this family had to go through. But then the entire tale wasn't funny: at times it was very painful to listen to. I suppose Sweeney is the type to find silver in a cloud rather than moan continually over the unfairness of her existence. Commendable, I say. I appreciated the way the stage was set up and the methods employed in it's use. Sweeney would walk from area to area using different lighting procedures and layouts, many of which went along with the narrative. Sometimes, with the curtains just behind her, she even appeared to be on the verge of going backstage. Often Sweeney would be looking away from the camera and then turn slowly to face it. That and other uses of the camera and expression added greatly to the production. Bittersweet, effective, excellently done.

This movie is so much better than that junk that is coming out of Hollywood these days. I loved Julia Sweeney in this movie because it touched my heart with her tragic story of the loss of her beloved brother, and the unfortunate circumstance of having her parents as her house guests.

This is one of the most life-affirming movies I've ever seen, even though it's not really a movie. It's actually a filmed version of Julia Sweeney's heartbreaking and heartwarming one-woman show about the worst year of her life. What's wonderful about her is her point of view. She never whines about why has this happened--about why her brother is dying from cancer at 31, or why her family must all live in her tiny bungalow and rob her of her privacy and sanity, or why she's dealt another massive blow (I won't mention it). She knows her brother Mike is in stage 4 of cancer ("stage 5 is death"), and there's no room for selfishness. It's her complete selflessness and plucky humor that pulled her through this terrible time and helped her see the silver lining of getting to understand her parents better. It's to her credit that she was able to create a show from her pain that can teach every one of us a lesson or two about life without being the tiniest bit pedantic, and it's even more to her credit how incredibly funny and deeply moving it is. I laughed one huge gut-laugh after another, and, yes, I had some tears. Sometimes I cried for her because she refused to.