graytart Reviews

Wit (2001 TV Movie)

A moving as demanding of its audience as its cast

[9/10 · 19 July 2006]

Just a brief correction: Eileen Atkins plays Thompson's former professor (Evelyn 'E.M.' Ashford). The sympathetic nurse (Susie Monahan) is played by Audra McDonald in a very nuanced portrayal of a dedicated health care worker who brings a touch of caring back into the sterile medical research equation.

This movie has many peaks and valleys for the viewer to experience along with the protagonist. I roared with laughter when, waiting uncomfortably in the stirrups for her former student to give her a gynecological exam, she opines that in retrospect she "should have given him an A." The scene in which the magnificent Atkins comes to Thompson's bedside and reads her a story had me bawling like a baby.

Having seen Thompson's stage portrayal of the Fool in King Lear many years ago, I was already convinced she was one of the best actresses of our age. This gritty movie only confirms my original feelings.

This is available on DVD. Do see it.

84 Charing Cross Road (1987)

My favourite film

[10/10 · 17 August 2004]

Whenever anyone asks me, which isn't often, I tell them this is it. And they invariably have never heard of it, which is a terrible shame.

I love the film, and advise those who love it as well that they SHOULD read the book too... and also read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, and find out what happened when Helene went to England after all those years.

And don't stop there... look up the Oxford Book of English Prose and the Oxford Book of English Verse (http://www.bartleby.com/101/), edited by the venerable Q (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), and see what inspired Helene to begin the correspondence in the first place (basically she decided to read everything Q mentioned, "unless it's fiction.")