Marvin's Room

A family film set between Florida and Ohio. Bessie has looked after her father for twenty years. Marvin had a stroke; he cannot speak, cannot get out of bed and needs constant care. An elderly aunt lives in the house as well. Bessie falls ill. She is diagnosed with leukaemia and needs a bone marrow donor. The only possible donors are her sister and her sister's two sons. Lee has not called in twenty years. She left home the day her sister took on the care and never came back. She is studying hairdressing now, lives with her two sons, and the elder is in a psychiatric hospital for setting fire to the house. Lee brings her sons to Florida. The body of the film is that meeting. The two sisters talk about what they have not discussed for years: who stayed, who left and who paid for it. A separate bond forms between Hank and Bessie; the boy meets an adult who is not angry with him for the first time. What the narrative is interested in is not the illness but the caring itself: Bessie does not think she lost her life, and that is the one thing her sister cannot understand. The source is Scott McPherson's play; he wrote the screenplay as well and died before the film was finished. Diane Keaton plays Bessie, Meryl Streep plays Lee, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Hank and Hume Cronyn plays Marvin. Robert De Niro and Gwen Verdon are in the cast. Jerry Zaks directed. A strong production for anyone who likes family drama and films that rest on performance. For a viewer expecting pace, it consists almost entirely of conversation. Who it is for: anyone who likes drama about the burden of care and reckonings between siblings. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a clear close; the film resolves nothing completely.