"Marvin's Room" Movie Review

"Marvin's Room" movie poster.

"Estranged since their father's first stroke some 17 years earlier, Lee (Meryl Streep) and Bessie (Diane Keaton) lead separate lives in separate states. Lee's son, Hank (Leonardo DiCaprio), finds himself committed to a mental institution after setting fire to his mother's house. His younger brother, Charlie (Hal Scardino), seems unfazed by his brother's eccentricities or his mother's seeming disinterest. When Lee comes to the asylum to spring Hank for a week in Florida so that he can be tested as a possible bone marrow donor for Bessie, Hank is incredulous. "I didn't even know you had a sister," he says. "Remember, every Christmas, when I used to say 'Well, looks like Aunt Bessie didn't send us a card again this year?'" "Oh yeah," Hank says. Meanwhile, Marvin (Hume Cronyn), the two women's bedridden father, has "been dying for the past twenty years." "He's doing it real slow so I don't miss anything," Bessie tells Dr. Wally (Robert DeNiro). In Bessie's regular doctor's absence, it has fallen to Dr. Wally to inform Bessie that she has leukemia and will die without a bone marrow transplant. This precipitates the two sisters uneasy reunion. In Marvin's room, Bessie cares for her father's every need. In Lee's eyes, the sacrifice Bessie has made is too great and realizing the old man's welfare will fall to her if Bessie dies, Lee's first instinct is to look for a nursing home. "In a few month's, I'll have my cosmotology degree," she says. "My life is just coming together; I'm not going to give it all up, now!" As first Lee is tested and then the boys for the compatibility of their marrow with Bessie's, the women take stock of their lives and rediscover the meaning of 'family.' " Written by Mark Fleetwood (Link below.)

I found this movie to be enjoyable. It's kind of cute, but it has a lot of cliches in it: there was the unfeeling mother, the self-sacrificial sister, the bad boy, that crazy aunt whose breathing machine causes the garage door to open at odd times.

Diane Keaton (L) and
Leonardo DiCaprio.

I actually think it's a shame Mr. DeNiro was in this, because the role was very small. It was important but I can't believe an A-list actor did it. Mr. DiCaprio's part was cool - he actually did burn down a house, so he's actually a really bad boy! Mr. Scardino's part was a bummer though. He was practically a non-entity. They seriously could have cut him from the movie, it wouldn't have made much of a difference. Both Ms. Streep and Ms. Keaton acted their asses off in this film. They are always awesome to watch.

I know that this movie was up for an Academy award - Diane Keaton for 'Best Actress in a Leading Role' - and a whole slew of other awards but that only makes me think it might've been a slow year. Leonardo DiCaprio won a Chlotrudis Award for 'Best Supporting Actor', quite possibly the ugliest award statuette I've ever seen!

The print is small but the script is available here: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/m/marvins-room-script-transcript-dicaprio.html.

Meryl Streep (L) and Leonardo DiCaprio.

It was an okay movie. I don't think I would watch it again. If it weren't for the big-name actors this would've been a made-for-tv movie. I give it 3 stars.

Favorite Lines:

Lee: Are you behaving yourself? 

Hank: Well, they're not strapping me down anymore.

Lee: We're going to see your Aunt Bessie in Florida. She's not feeling so well. 

Hank: I didn't even knew I had an Aunt Bessie. 

Lee: She came to the house right after your Dad and I were married. 

Hank: I wasn't even born yet. 

Lee: Oh. 

Lee: Don't waste your time trying to make friends with him. We're only going to be here a few days.

Lee: [to her son] My feelings for you, Hank, are like a big bowl of - 

[sighs] 

Lee: fish hooks. I can't just pick up one up at a time. I pick one up and they all come, so I just had to leave 'em alone.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116999/plotsummary.