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Our PS3 went on this weird tear last week while we were watching Kurosawa's "Rashomon", so our Netflix delivery schedule is a little jacked up. In order to make sure we got the next AFI Top 100 movie in time this week, we had to work through a few of our older movies. Last night, we popped in a film that we'd been sitting on for 18 months or so -- "Wit".
The basic premise is this: an unyielding English professor learns that she has advanced ovarian cancer, and has to deal with the ravages of the disease and her treatment. Emma Thompson and Mike Nichols adapted the screenplay from the original play by Margaret Edson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This is Edson's only published work; she decided that she'd rather be a school teacher full-time. This just blows me away, that somewhere in this country there's a woman grading 6th grade tests, then goes home to the freaking Pulitzer Prize on her mantle-piece.
But back to the movie. It's...wow, a diamond of a film. Every time I see a movie with Emma Thompson, I think "This must be the greatest thing she's ever done." I doubt I'll think that again after seeing this movie. The writing is incredibly crisp, clever, uncompromising but so tender. It explores subtly and directly the anxiety we feel over death, all the things that come up when we look back on our lives, the way we discover that the ideals we've chased all along have been the wrong ones. Vivian Bearing, a scholar in the strictest definition, devotes her life to perfect study, an unyielding attention to detail, to the chase of absolute understanding. The way she describes herself and her work makes you understand why she's chosen the life she has, and why it's so important. But when you see her attitudes reflected by the doctors who value ideas and ideals over the practical application of them, you see what's missing down that road.
The more I think about it, the more I realize I've largely left my idealism behind. It manifests itself in a lot of ways still, but those are remnants of an old belief, habits that I haven't replaced yet. I think idealism does more to damage society and make people miserable than just about anything else. Don't get me wrong; I have my ideals still, and I work towards them. But I also recognize that purity is the enemy of compassion, that if I try to pursue my ideals to the exclusion of everything else then I'm not really adding anything to the world around me but frustration and disconnection.
There's no such thing as an absolute in nature. (I realize that this is a hypocritical statement, and there are a ton of things you could probably point me to that would prove me wrong. But just go with me on this. Only the Sith deal in absolutes.) The idea of purity is something artificial, I think. We find it attractive, we strive for it, we have an almost innate desire to make things "clean", to protect that cleanliness as much as possible. That's good, in a lot of ways, but when we try to follow it through to other artificial constructs it never turns out well.
Perfection is impossible. Embodying a single trait to the exclusion of everything else is also impossible. Christians will never be Christ-like, even if they understand what that means. Does that mean no one should try? Of course not, we all have ideas we strive towards. But at the same time, we must recognize the multitudes we contain and make peace with them. We are strong, vulnerable, powerfully weak creatures. Trying to purge ourselves of our contradictions will drive us insane.
Bearing discovers a new part of herself through her ordeal, but unfortunately she doesn't have the support to adequately explore it. This is the great tragedy to me; the idea that someone is shaken to her foundation and has no one to help her regain her footing. Bearing is smart enough to try and stand up on her own two feet, but really, what can one person do in the face of impending annihilation? How can one mind handle the overwhelming realization of the end of your life? It stops me cold every time I think about it. As much as you think you can make peace with it, the truth is you never can. I suppose you can get yourself comfortable with the idea of death, but I'm not sure you can make peace with the reality of it.
Anyway, "Wit" is a movie I highly, wholeheartedly recommend. It's simply amazing.
The basic premise is this: an unyielding English professor learns that she has advanced ovarian cancer, and has to deal with the ravages of the disease and her treatment. Emma Thompson and Mike Nichols adapted the screenplay from the original play by Margaret Edson, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This is Edson's only published work; she decided that she'd rather be a school teacher full-time. This just blows me away, that somewhere in this country there's a woman grading 6th grade tests, then goes home to the freaking Pulitzer Prize on her mantle-piece.
But back to the movie. It's...wow, a diamond of a film. Every time I see a movie with Emma Thompson, I think "This must be the greatest thing she's ever done." I doubt I'll think that again after seeing this movie. The writing is incredibly crisp, clever, uncompromising but so tender. It explores subtly and directly the anxiety we feel over death, all the things that come up when we look back on our lives, the way we discover that the ideals we've chased all along have been the wrong ones. Vivian Bearing, a scholar in the strictest definition, devotes her life to perfect study, an unyielding attention to detail, to the chase of absolute understanding. The way she describes herself and her work makes you understand why she's chosen the life she has, and why it's so important. But when you see her attitudes reflected by the doctors who value ideas and ideals over the practical application of them, you see what's missing down that road.
The more I think about it, the more I realize I've largely left my idealism behind. It manifests itself in a lot of ways still, but those are remnants of an old belief, habits that I haven't replaced yet. I think idealism does more to damage society and make people miserable than just about anything else. Don't get me wrong; I have my ideals still, and I work towards them. But I also recognize that purity is the enemy of compassion, that if I try to pursue my ideals to the exclusion of everything else then I'm not really adding anything to the world around me but frustration and disconnection.
There's no such thing as an absolute in nature. (I realize that this is a hypocritical statement, and there are a ton of things you could probably point me to that would prove me wrong. But just go with me on this. Only the Sith deal in absolutes.) The idea of purity is something artificial, I think. We find it attractive, we strive for it, we have an almost innate desire to make things "clean", to protect that cleanliness as much as possible. That's good, in a lot of ways, but when we try to follow it through to other artificial constructs it never turns out well.
Perfection is impossible. Embodying a single trait to the exclusion of everything else is also impossible. Christians will never be Christ-like, even if they understand what that means. Does that mean no one should try? Of course not, we all have ideas we strive towards. But at the same time, we must recognize the multitudes we contain and make peace with them. We are strong, vulnerable, powerfully weak creatures. Trying to purge ourselves of our contradictions will drive us insane.
Bearing discovers a new part of herself through her ordeal, but unfortunately she doesn't have the support to adequately explore it. This is the great tragedy to me; the idea that someone is shaken to her foundation and has no one to help her regain her footing. Bearing is smart enough to try and stand up on her own two feet, but really, what can one person do in the face of impending annihilation? How can one mind handle the overwhelming realization of the end of your life? It stops me cold every time I think about it. As much as you think you can make peace with it, the truth is you never can. I suppose you can get yourself comfortable with the idea of death, but I'm not sure you can make peace with the reality of it.
Anyway, "Wit" is a movie I highly, wholeheartedly recommend. It's simply amazing.
