Review: Marvin’s Room

Diane Keaton stars as a middle-aged woman who has been caring for her father (Hume Cronyn), who has been bedridden and slowly dying for years. When Keaton’s doctor (Robert De Niro, the film’s producer) tells her she has leukaemia, she decides to call her estranged sister Meryl Streep (who got outta that home quick smart, unlike her sister) to come and get tested for a bone marrow match to have a transplant. Streep, a trainee cosmetologist with two sons (one of whom is a destructive teen delinquent played by Leonardo DiCaprio), reluctantly packs the family up and heads to see the sister she has had no contact with for 20 years. Needless to say, old wounds will be brought up and not necessarily healed (nor will they necessarily be between the two sisters), whilst there is also the small matter of the extremely hostile DiCaprio (who we see early on in a mental institute after burning the family home down) not wanting to get tested, though the other son has no qualms about it. Gwen Verdon plays the daffy, elderly Aunt, who is too frightened to be left to fend for herself for even a minute, and is happiest sitting in front of the TV watching corny soap operas (“All My Children”, specifically, which Verdon herself was actually on). Dan Hedaya is hilarious as De Niro’s moron brother whom he hires as a receptionist.

 

Despite huge star power and a seemingly can’t miss story, this 1996 drama from director Jerry Zaks (a Broadway veteran making his debut film) and playwright Scott McPherson (who sadly died in 1992, two years after the play was first produced) falls just short. Although there are powerful performances from Diane Keaton and especially Hume Cronyn (conveying much without saying a word in his swan song), it never quite gets the waterworks going, even for an old softie like me. This is due to three things;

 

Firstly, although I found the performances of both Dan Hedaya and veteran hoofer Gwen Verdon absolutely hilarious and charming, the comedy and quirk don’t quite mesh with the otherwise serious subject matter and indeed soften the blow. I understand the intention to soften the blow, but if you’re gonna make a tear-jerker, you need to be careful not to soften things too much.

 

Secondly, not only is Meryl Streep completely unconvincing as a trainee cosmetologist (a role best suited to Cher- not something I ever thought I’d type), but the character is a bit too hardened even by the end. You never quite warm to her, even though her wayward oldest son is a legit pain in the arse and her marriage was a volatile one to say the least.

 

**** POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING **** Thirdly, the film tries to differentiate itself from most films about terminal illness by not giving us the conclusion one normally finds in these sorts of things. You can talk all you want about the film being about a fractured family coming together, but ultimately it belongs to the tear-jerker subgenre of drama, and those films tend to end a certain way because it’s quite simply the only ending that works. This film leaves way too many loose ends hanging and is not satisfying in the slightest (especially given there are two dying people here), though many seem to disagree with me. **** END POTENTIAL SPOILER ****

 

Still, there are strong moments, and it’s one of Keaton’s least affected and irritating performances to date. When she says she’s frightened of not waking up, you’ll probably contemplate that being a possibility in your own life eventually, and it’s absolutely terrifying. Even then-teen heartthrob DiCaprio gives one of his better performances of the mid-to-late 90s (an up and down period for him, if you ask me), though he has some rough moments of overacting here early on. However, Robert De Niro is pretty worthless here as a nervous doctor, a superfluous and distracting role.

 

Overall, it’s an OK film that could’ve been an even better one, especially given the subject matter would potentially resonate with a huge audience (Sadly, most of us are destined to become carers and the cared for, at some point in our lives). About the best thing I can say for it is that at no moment did I feel like I was watching a filmed play, which is a rarity for cinematic adaptations of plays.

 

Rating: C+