As Filhas de Marvin

Small 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.

Marvin'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.

Marvin'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!

This 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

I 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.