Wit | 
| Director: Mike Nichols
Actors: Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins, Audra Mcdonald, Jonathan M. Woodward
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $3.64
You Save: $6.34 (64%)
New (42) Used (18) from $2.89
Rating:  148 reviews
Sales Rank: 2731
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 99 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.2 x 5.6 x 0.5
MPN: D91781D
ISBN: 0783118414
UPC: 026359178122
EAN: 9780783118413
ASIN: B00005MKKV
Theatrical Release Date: March 24, 2001
Release Date: September 11, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Deservedly hailed as one of the best films of 2001, Wit makes it clear why top-ranking talents seek refuge in the quality programming of HBO. Unhindered by box-office pressures, director Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson turn the most unglamorous topic--the physical and psychological ravages of cancer--into an exquisite contemplation of life, learning, and tenacious, richly expressed humanity. In adapting Margaret Edson's compassionate, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Nichols and Thompson open up the one-room setting with a superb supporting cast. But their focus remains on the hospital experience of Vivian (Thompson), a fiercely demanding professor of English literature whose academic specialty--the metaphysical poetry of John Donne--is the armor she wears against the cruel indignities of her cancer treatment. While losing all that she held dear, she reassesses her life as an aloof intellectual, and Wit illuminates her bracingly eloquent and deeply moving struggle for dignity, meaning, and peace at life's ultimate crossroads. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
VIVIAN BEARING IS A DISCIPLINED ENGLISH PROFESSOR WHO FINDS HER RATIONAL APPROACH TO LIVE OVERTURNED WHEN SHE IS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER. NO LONGER A TEACHER, BUT A SUBJECT FOR OTHERS TO STUDY, VIVIAN IS ABOUT TO DISCOVER A FINE LINE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH THAT CAN ONLY BE WALKED WITH WIT.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 143 more reviews...
 Not very witty June 14, 2009
M. Carlson
This was a rather depressing film. Of course, Emma Thompson does a fine job with the role (which is the only reason I am giving it 3 stars), but in the end, this movie was about death not life. For instance, we see only her experience with cancer treatment, not the life she's living in between the treatment, so we have a hard time building empathy for the character because we don't really know who she is. Yes, we see little glimpses along the way, but we don't know the life that she has led. I personally did not find the dialogue very witty, as the title suggests, which may have redeemed the movie somewhat. If the movie has any message at all, it is that our health care system is lacking in "care".
Tough To Watch June 9, 2009
Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Being a fan of Emma Thompson, I was anxious to see this....but wound up not exactly entertained, although I always appreciate her acting. Seeing a woman slowly die of cancer is not exactly an uplifting storyline, but that's what this is all about. I'm not surprised the film wasn't a big hit.
What the story specifically focuses on is Emma ("Vivian Bering") being the subject of an experimental drug. She is dying and by being the "guinea pig," she courageously can demonstrate how effective this new drug is even though she knows it isn't going to cure her.
"Bering" is a cold, intellectual college professor who, through this ordeal, slowly finds out the importance of people treating others with more humanity. That sounds inspiring, but it's a tough movie to sit through. Seeing Thompson bald and bitter throughout a good portion of the film is not easy.
National critics called it "intelligent" because Thomposn's character used an extensive vocabulary as she narrated her experiences. For us folks who aren't so "elite," it's a so-so film at best.
 good movie June 2, 2009
Jeanne Udovic (PA)
I ordered this movie for my sister after viewing it. What a sensitive movie. One can feel what it must be like to endure severe chemo therapy, reevaluate your life and all the while getting prepared for dying.
 Brilliance on all sides May 28, 2009
Gerard Dionne
It seems to me that certain matters can be understood, that is to say, experienced at arms length back here where it's safe, only with art. If your loved one dies of a terrible progressive illness, you know the experience intimately. Yet understanding may take awhile, if it ever comes. If you yourself are desperately ill, you live in a cocoon of pain, embarrassment, fear and anger. You experience this only to the degree your mental capacity remains unimpaired. Understanding your experience may be a low priority. Yet, this film, like the ennui of Waiting for Godot, or the visual assault of Jackson Pollack, the cynicism of Lolita, or the anguish of Mahler's last adagio, sends us flying - transported to a place where we have, finally, an understanding, a closure. This film is a quiet little diamond - you can look at it from any angle and find not suffering, not degradation, but transcendent light. The greatest art shows us how rich life can be.
3 stars out of 4 May 25, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Ann Arbor)
The Bottom Line:
Smart, insightful, and elegaic, Wit is a moving film about a lonely and intelligent woman preparing herself for death; although the direction sometimes gets a bit too gimmicky (as when Emma Thompson is inserted into her childhood memories) and the pace is too slow for the film to be described as "entertaining," Wit is a very good film that deserves to be seen.
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