I’m not the first guy to compile favorite elevator scenes, but I do believe that this particular ranking is my own. I was surprised by just how many significant elevator scenes there have been over the decades, from comedies to action movies. This doesn’t count just any film that happens to have a random elevator in it, but films with elevator scenes that are actually memorable with special props to those with more than one elevator scene. This does only refer to movies, but I’ll give a shout-out to notable elevators in TV as well, such as the Star Trek turbolifts, the anime Death Parade, and that infamous death scene in L.A. Law. I’m also well aware of violent elevator scenes in films like Drive, Cabin in the Woods, and The Departed, but since I haven’t seen those, they don’t count.
It’s time then to elevate my top twelve movie scenes involving elevators.
I’ve never been trapped in an elevator, but this is probably what it would be like. When Tom Hanks’ Joe Fox is stranded with his girlfriend and two others in an elevator, his character has a turning point.
As I said before, most elevators take you where you want to go, but some do the opposite. When aspiring rocketeer Homer Hickam must take his father’s place in the West Virginia coal mine he’s been dreading, it is an elevator that drags him from the starry beauty above to the oppressive darkness below.
When the girl you’re trying to rescue is many levels below the flight deck with your one chance of escaping an exploding planet, there’s bound to be an elevator involved. Both Ripley and the Alien Queen make good use of the rising cages, and the tension is palpable. The scene that really gets me, though, is when Ripley and Hicks are waiting for an elevator door to close and an alien leaps from the darkness. Why won’t those doors close faster?!
Don’t you just love elevator music? I didn’t think so, but the Blues Brothers make it hilarious as they stoically ascend the floors while all hell is breaking loose outside. SWAT teams yell “Hut, hut, hut” like those “mine” seagulls in Finding Nemo and overkill is an understatement, but all is well within the blissful ignorance of the elevator.
Inception has two great elevator scenes, the coolest being Arthur’s zero-gravity wake-up call. The first, though, bears enough suspicious similarity to the surreal anime film Paprika that I had to include these two together. Both movies are about dreams, and an elevator serves as a vertical means of navigating various levels of the subconscious.
Two Jedi walk onto an elevator full of droids…. Okay, there’s no punchline, but it is cool. Not only does this scene give Anakin a neat move in the elevator shaft, it confirmed that R2-D2 is the coolest droid. Let’s see BB-8 do that!
When Woody is kidnapped, of course he has to be taken to the top of a huge apartment building, and since toys can’t very well ride an elevator like people can, his friends hitch a ride on top. The first elevator scene is funny enough, but later when Zurg shows up, it’s comedy gold as the climax begins.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) / Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Both of these scenes have something in common: the lone protagonist is crowded in an elevator by bad guys just waiting to ambush him. Cap and John McClane are too formidable to be taken by surprise and gain the upper hand against all odds. McClane’s method is more violent, but Cap also has to worry about getting out of the elevator as more enemies approach.
Both adaptations of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book include the Great Glass Elevator. Gene Wilder’s version of the button-filled box serves as the film’s finale, while the Johnny Depp version utilizes the elevator a little more. I’d love to ride in both of them. I wonder how it would have turned out if Dahl’s sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator could have been filmed to make the elevator the star. Spoiler warning!
If disaster movies have taught us anything, it should be to NEVER get in an elevator during a disaster. Of course, when a glass high-rise is going up in flames, people panic and pay for it in the elevator. If that weren’t enough, the stakes are elevated higher (pun intended) when another elevator on the outside of the building dangles precariously. Its rescue is the highlight of the film.
James Cameron knew how to employ elevators. Instead of an Alien Queen, this time there’s a liquid metal cyborg on the loose, who’s not about to let an elevator door or roof stop him from completing his assassination mission. The effects and action are both scary and impressive.
No film captures the terror of an elevator’s worst case scenario like Speed. Before we even get to Sandra Bullock and the runaway bus, Keanu Reeves and his SWAT team must rescue an elevator’s passengers from a bomber (Dennis Hopper). When the elevator hangs from an unstable crane, the rescue keeps you literally on the edge of your seat, and the confrontation with the bomber just happens to take place on an elevator too. It’s a shame I couldn’t find a video for the scene, but trust me, not many elevator scenes can compare with this one.
Die Hard (1988) – “Now I have a machine gun. Ho, ho, ho.”
Earthquake (1974) – The first hint of a problem in this disaster flick involves a flooded elevator, and later more panickers prove why an elevator is a death trap in an earthquake.
Ghost (1990) – I like the little scene where Patrick Swayze and Tony Goldwin prank everyone in the crowded elevator.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) – When gremlins take control of your elevator, be afraid.
The Hunger Games(2012) and Catching Fire (2013) – The tributes are elevated into the arena as suspense builds. Plus, there’s that awkward stripping scene with Johanna in the elevator.
Kate and Leopold (2001) – Apparently if the inventor of the elevator never invented elevators, elevators would still exist but wouldn’t work? Yeah, time travel.
My Favorite Wife (1940) – A great little moment in this Cary Grant charmer takes place in an elevator when Grant sees his presumably dead wife alive again. (See the picture at the top.)
National Treasure (2004) – Not only does Nicholas Cage abscond with the Declaration of Independence in an elevator, but he uses an eighteenth-century equivalent to descend to the treasure.
Oh, God! (1977) – If you rise past the top floor, you may be on your way to talk to God.
Outland (1981) – Have you ever wondered what would happen if a spacesuit decompressed in an elevator? It ain’t pretty.
Panic Room (2002) – It’s more of a dumbwaiter, but Jodie Foster uses her mini-elevator to outsmart the home invaders.
Scrooged (1988) – Bill Murray’s reaction to the Ghost of Christmas Future is priceless.
The Shining (1980) – I didn’t even know that flood of blood was coming out of an elevator until I looked it up.
In honor of the Oscars, be sure to vote for your least favorite Best Picture winner! I went with one that shouldn’t have stood up to the competition, 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. There are some unexpected choices this round, so pick the one you found least deserving!
Round Four Least Favourite Oscar Winning Best Picture
We are about to hit Oscar season and what better than to pick our Least favourite Oscar Winning Best Picture because let’s face it we do love some more than others, this time it is the ones we have less love for.
If you want to take part in the next round which is Favourite Action Hero (non-Superhero/comic book) to celebrate the release of London is Fallen. if you want to take part end your pick to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk by Sunday the 6h March 2016.
Darren – Movie Reviews 101
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I have decided to pick a film from the modern era because I really do struggle to enjoy or give the real credit to a lot of older work deserves. I am going to go with a pick that many people will…
Grab the wheel and rev the motor;
Shift the gear for overload;
Brace yourself and lock and load her;
Hit the gas and hit the road!
Don’t look back at what has been;
Drive for lives and don’t delay.
High on pure adrenaline,
Floor it through a lovely day!
_____________
MPAA rating: R
After reading almost nothing but great things about this movie, I finally decided to check out Mad Max: Fury Road, and I can’t say that I was disappointed. I haven’t seen any of the original Mad Max trilogy, but since each one seems to be its own adventure with one constant character, what’s there to know? The world has been reduced by war to a barren wasteland, with mankind relying on jacked-up vehicles to survive amid ruthless gangs and dangers. While I consider this automotive dystopia entirely unbelievable, Fury Road is a movie meant to be experienced, not watched or analyzed or taken overly seriously, though you’re welcome to do that too once the adrenaline dies down. Directed by George Miller, the 70-year-old director who surprisingly also gave us Babe and Happy Feet, it’s an assault on the senses, and you’re just along for the ride.
I tried watching this with my very hesitant VC, who has seen some of the first three movies and considers them weird. “Weird” still applies. The costumes, makeup, characters, vehicles, and overall package are bizarre, superfluous, and often grotesque but certainly imaginative and oddly cool (seriously, a whole rig dedicated to a background guitar solo?). The central baddies are a fanatical cult led by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the first Mad Max’s villain), who rules the mountainous Citadel by controlling his War Boys’ religious fervor and the people’s access to the life-giving fluids of water, milk, gasoline, and blood. When one of his right hands, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), escapes for freedom with Joe’s scantily clad harem, his entire army takes off in hot pursuit. Oh, yeah, and there’s a guy named Max (Tom Hardy) along for the ride.
I was dubious about many critics considering Fury Road one of the greatest action movies ever, but it kind of is, if only because the entire story relies on action. Details like the War Boys’ method of suicide or Furiosa’s robotic forearm are never explained. They’re just presented while the thin plot and explosions roll along, letting action take the place of any in-depth characterization.
We don’t even get much in the way of character bonding or motivation until about two-thirds of the way through, but somehow it’s forgiven because we’ve already seen everyone in action, from Joe’s five wives with names like Toast and Capable to the dedicated War Boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult). My VC was a bit turned off by the frantic, sometimes sped-up editing, but it did make it hard to look away. The explosions are amazing, and all the more amazing for relying on practical effects and stunts, though one obviously CGI scene at the climax almost spoiled the effect. I also liked how it managed a happy ending that served as an inverse of the beginning, even if the final scene seemed needlessly set up for a sequel.
One aspect that I’ve seen mentioned over and over is how violent the film is, and while it’s certainly R-rated action, I wasn’t that bothered by it. I was fearing something really graphic, but the truth is that Fury Road is nowhere near as gory as things like The Walking Dead or the Deadpool trailer (both of which I’ve seen once and won’t again). There are shootings and stabbings and people being thrown off of fast-moving vehicles, but save for a couple of scenes, the R is really owed to the film’s overall intensity, and even the violent scenes are so brief in the kinetic editing that they didn’t detract for me. The bloodiest scene actually serves a latent purpose in punishing the very weird excesses I mentioned earlier, sort of like the cape critique in The Incredibles. You want to wear over-the-top costumes? Well, you may regret it. In addition, I was pleased that, for once, a gritty actioner was almost entirely free of foul language. Granted, there’s not a lot of dialogue in the first place, but think about it. Was it really missed?
Whether you watch for Hardy’s and Theron’s strong laconic leads or for the girl power thrill of women with guns or for the nonstop epic action, this is one nitro-fueled bandwagon I can’t help but jump aboard, despite its innate strangeness. While I agree on its awesome status among action films, when was the last pure action movie to be nominated for Best Picture? I rather wish Inside Out had been nominated instead. But that’s me. Brilliant at best and entertaining at worst, Mad Max: Fury Road is an unexpectedly great sequel that viewers didn’t know they wanted.
Best line: (Nux, in a line that could be even more iconic if it had been repeated; after all, it’s a lot better than “Witness me”) “Oh, what a day! What a lovely day!”
Out in the marsh where the sandpipers wade
And the reeds allow breezes to bend every blade,
Visions appear in the moonlight and fade
And leave witnesses with a curious scare.
Some think they’re nothing but eyes playing tricks,
And others fear ghosts have escaped from the Styx,
But some explore further with sorrows to fix
And find answers they didn’t know would be there.
___________________
MPAA rating: PG
Studio Ghibli has been crafting outstanding animations for the last three decades, and now that co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is officially retired (again), it looks as if its present hiatus may be permanent. Before the hiatus, though, the studio gave us one more Ghibli gift in When Marnie Was There. Is it among the best Ghibli has to offer? No, but it still has a magical and earnest quality that can hold fast with the likes of Porco Rosso and The Secret World of Arrietty (also directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi).
Based on Joan G. Robinson’s 1965 YA novel, which is one of Miyazaki’s favorites, When Marnie Was There is also one of Ghibli’s more mature works, not in a graphic sense like Princess Mononoke, but in an emotional sense. Anna (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld in the English dub) is a deeply troubled girl who keeps all of her griefs inside. As she says, she hates herself, for having asthma, for not fitting in at school, for not feeling at home with her foster parents. When she is sent to the countryside to live with friendly relatives, she remains uncomfortably stoic until she encounters a rundown mansion and the mysterious blonde girl Marnie (Kiernan Shipka) who only appears to her. When Anna crosses the tidal marsh to the mansion, she seems to step back in time, and their friendship grows, allowing Anna to regain her emotions and her self-confidence.
Many Ghibli films are leisurely paced, and this is no exception. The beginning takes time in establishing the characters: the nosy but nice would-be friend, the laconic neighborhood fisherman, the habitual painter fond of Marnie’s mansion. This community is merely a quaint backdrop for the central friendship and mystery between Anna and Marnie. The slowness of the mystery taxes the patience more than the film overall, but luckily there is a payoff, even if the line between dreams and reality becomes more ambiguous over time.
Some comments on the film have considered the girls’ bond in a romantic context with words like “infatuation,” and there were times that I was wondering where exactly their relationship was going. By today’s standards, when two twelve-year-olds meet secretly and dance in the moonlight and express their love, romance is assumed over friendship, while the opposite probably would have been true in the past. Perhaps modern sensibilities have colored people’s perceptions, like the humorous assumptions on Sherlock or the way some people mistake Sam and Frodo’s brotherly camaraderie in The Lord of the Rings for longing. Ultimately, the girls are meant to be only friends, yet the solving of the mystery reveals that their connection is indeed deeper than first thought. Actually, the revelation casts certain scenes in a much more tender and meaningful light, with subtle psychological details unseen in most Ghiblis. (Note the doll that Anna holds during a painful flashback.)
Though it’s not obvious at first, Anna’s greatest misery is being ignored or not wanted. Even the nicest people who seem to pay her attention are easily distracted, leaving her with nothing but personal distaste. Is Marnie merely the subconscious product of her desire for attention or a supernatural answer to it? By the end, it doesn’t really matter. Wishing to belong is nothing new in family films, but When Marnie Is There supplies a satisfying reply with more realistic resonances than most. With so much emotional depth, it’s unfortunate that the film’s visual style can’t quite match it. It has its fair share of memorable Ghibli-style scenes (a moonlit rowboat, wading through a rising tide), but its beauty just doesn’t compare with their best. Though Marnie has earned a nomination for Best Animated Feature, Inside Out is still a shoo-in. Despite this, When Marnie Is There is a bittersweet swan song for one of the great animation studios.
Best line: (Anna, watching her classmates) “In this world, there’s an invisible magic circle. There’s an inside, and an outside. Those people are inside the circle, and I’m outside.”
When Sophie plans to wed, she wants to meet her dad,
But from what she has read, her mom loved a triad.
So she invites the trio there,
To their hotel in Greece.
Sam, Bill, and Harry show; will wonders never cease?
When Donna meets her lovers there, it eats her.
What a mess!
Though they intrigue her, Sophie isn’t eager
To confess.
Donna’s stressed,
And the beaus play it close to the vest.
Sophie tries
To sightsee with all three of the guys.
The wedding closer draws, and she is still unsure
Which of the three it was that really fathered her.
As all three come to know the truth
And Sophie’s plans collapse,
Old griefs and tensions rise that once were under wraps.
With Sophie’s wedding, things come to a heading.
No more stress!
With all the bother, why choose just one father?
Take a guess!
And instead,
It is not who we thought would be wed.
And the throng
Celebrates and hydrates with a song!
________________
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexual dialogue)
It’s been a while since I let my VC pick a movie (although Flash Gordon was sort of hers) so I finally let her talk me into seeing Mamma Mia! again. There are so many fantastic musicals out there, and then there are those in which the plot is so flimsy that it only serves as a framework for musical numbers. Mamma Mia! definitely fits into the latter category, stringing together a number of 1970s hits amid a convoluted and loose-moralled story of uncertain identity. The catch is that this is all it tries to be, and it does it very well.
Let’s start with the plot. After reading her mother Donna’s youthful diary, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) discovers that her father is one of three men who hooked up with Donna (Meryl Streep) about twenty years ago, all around the same time. Since Sophie is soon to be married, she wants her real father to walk her down the aisle and so invites all three to the Greek island where she lives. What could possibly go wrong? This setup is implausible and more than a little silly, and it goes nowhere fast as Sophie and Donna are both frazzled, while little side-plots with their friends chip away at ABBA’s discography.
But, as I said, the plot is secondary to the music, and there’s no shortage of great ABBA songs. While I was aware of the Swedish pop quartet before this movie, the only songs I associated with them were “Dancing Queen” and “Super Trouper,” but there are far more memorable tunes than I had given them credit for. Some I’d heard but didn’t really know (“Honey, Honey,” “Our Last Summer”), and others I had never even encountered before (“Lay All Your Love on Me” and the title song “Mamma Mia”). The way that all these disparate pop songs are combined into a barely cohesive whole is rather impressive, and if anything, it introduces whippersnappers like me to an uber-band from the ‘70s that deserves to be remembered.
The other reason to see Mamma Mia! is the privilege(?) of seeing famous actors play against type. It’s no secret that Amanda Seyfried sings beautifully (Les Miserables), but who would expect Meryl Streep to belt out surprisingly good vocals while wearing overalls or in a duet with James Bond? Plus, Julie Walters and Stellan Skarsgard are entirely different in “wild-and-crazy-old-people” roles, Dominic Cooper sounds nothing like the MCU’s Howard Stark, and Colin Firth is a far cry from Mr. Darcy. These uncharacteristic castings are also a problem, though. As much as he tries, Pierce Brosnan is simply not a singer, and every song with Julie Walters is uncomfortably grating. In fact, Walters and Christine Baranski as Donna’s friends are consistently grating as two overly frisky cougars whose attempts at not being old aren’t exactly flattering.
As if that didn’t sound negative enough, I also take issue with the ending. Not to give away specifics, but the overall message that the finale pushes is that love is for everybody but marriage is just for old people. I may be old-fashioned (in fact, I know I am), but why does marriage always seem to come after the honeymoon in movies, if it comes at all? Sophie’s choice at the end implies that she didn’t learn very much from her mother’s mistakes.
With the last two negative paragraphs, I was planning on ranking Mamma Mia! as a dishonorable mention, but my VC’s fondness for it tipped the scales. She says that “yes, it’s immoral and silly and all, but I like it.” The music, the exotic Greek scenery, the choreography, the appeal of good actors having fun with roles that might have gone to has-beens – these are what she enjoys, and I can’t really say I disagree. The truth is that I do love the music, which should understandably be the star of a musical. ABBA’s songs make up for the film’s abundant flaws so that its groovy appeal still shines through.
Best line: (Sophie) “I want the perfect wedding, and I want my father to give me away.” (Ali, her friend) “Better be a wide aisle!”
Don’t forget to vote for Round 3 of this year’s Opinion Battles, this time for Favorite Ryan Reynolds Role. He’s had plenty of “meh” movies over the years, but there are surely some great diamonds in the rough to choose from!
Deadpool has hits the cinema this week and it is now time to look at the leading actor Ryan Reynolds, he has been in some of the biggest box office bombs most critically slammed films but has also been in a large number low budget films. Deadpool has had everyone talking about it finally being his time for big box office film and only time will tell on that. We have just under 60 performances to pick from so what will be the winner?
If you would like to join in next round of Opinion Battles we are going to be picking our Least Favourite Oscar Winner Best Picture. Email your choice to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.uk by 21st February 2016.
Movie Reviews 101
Jerry and Voices of Mr Whiskers and Bosco – The Voices
Jerry is one of my favourite characters in comedy of recent years, he…
Bless all brothers near and far,
The sensitive and callous ones,
The playmates prone to jealousy
Yet somehow fond of family,
The boys who tease and rib and spar
Yet love their parents’ other sons.
Maybe brothers don’t realize
The privilege that I never had,
A friend you maybe did not want,
A buddy quicker to confront,
Yet one whose love your name implies,
Who shares more than a mom and dad.
______________
MPAA rating: PG-13
I recently found a local movie channel that shows more obscure films, and checking out one such sleeper just for the heck of it, I discovered this underrated drama. Dominick and Eugene seems like a prime award magnet. It features a nuanced fraternal relationship, a superb performance from an Oscar nominee (Tom Hulce), strong supporting roles for Ray Liotta and Jamie Lee Curtis, and a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet I’d never heard of it, and the most it received in 1988 was a Golden Globe nom for Hulce before fading away into the sea of forgotten ‘80s movies. Maybe its title was too generic, but this is a shame.
The titular duo are twins living together in Pittsburgh. Liotta is Eugene, a doctor-to-be who tries to start a relationship with a colleague (Curtis) and further his career while dealing with his mentally challenged brother. Hulce as Dominick is the star here. He is child-like, earnest, and hopelessly gullible, often falling for the tricks or suggestions of his coworker Larry and the local hoodlums, and when an idea gets in his head, he doesn’t let it go easily. Despite his disability, though, Nicky is the breadwinner, and his job as a garbage man serves to fund his brother’s education. Eugene is both protective of and frustrated by his brother, for reasons not clear at first, and life, love, and tragedy get in the way of their close relationship.
Dominick and Eugene could have drawn comparisons to the other drama about brotherly bonds and mental illness from that same year Rain Man, which did earn Best Picture and Best Actor Oscars and had far more advertising and better known stars. Hulce can’t quite compare with Dustin Hoffman’s role there (few can), but his fragile and earnest performance surely deserved more attention. One scene in particular stood out to me, as the camera centers on Hulce’s first-person view and reaction to a shocking act and a personal realization. The relationship between the two brothers is both strained yet unbreakable and more believable than in Rain Man, helping Dominick and Eugene to succeed as a subtle and touching affirmation of family ties.
Best line: (Dominick, who is a Christian but discouraged, looking at a crucifix) “If I was God, I wouldn’t let that happen to my boy.”
Cancer—I have seen your pitiless work,
The way you so silently grow from within.
The experts have learned how you burgeon and lurk,
A game meant to study but never to win.
So many have felt your pale fingers intrude;
So many have borne the despair in your wake;
So many have prayed that you might be subdued;
So many have suffered and cursed for your sake.
Physicians give odds with no true guarantee,
Less interest in me than my cunning disease.
They can’t cure themselves, and they cannot cure me;
They fight off the chorus, then wait for reprise.
Oh, cancer, your name is a tyrant for now,
But after your reign, we will nevermore bow.
________________
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for themes and brief nudity and language)
I’ve seen a lot of great movies lately, yet none have touched me as profoundly as Wit, such a simple title for such a powerful film. In fact, I think everyone ought to see this underrated HBO film, especially those fond of poetry or having any experience with medicine and hospitals. Directed by Mike Nichols, Wit is based on the play by Margaret Edson, which very deservedly won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The always wonderful Emma Thompson gives one of her finest performances as Professor Vivian Bearing, a renowned scholar of metaphysical poetry. When diagnosed with advanced metastatic ovarian cancer, she has little choice but to submit to a rigorous experimental treatment prescribed by her Dr. Kelekian (a surprisingly straight-laced Christopher Lloyd). What she at first approached with cool confidence quickly becomes a constant hardship, and the treatment becomes more traumatic than the disease. While Bearing interacts with doctors and her sympathetic nurse (Audra McDonald), much of the film is her speaking directly to the camera, describing her passion for poetry, the trials of her chemotherapy, and her internal musings and doubts. When scenes of hospital room waiting start to drag, she makes note of the tedium and points out that as boring as these few scenes are for us, just consider how they feel for her. Thompson shaved her head for this role, and while Judy Davis stole Emmy and Golden Globe wins for the biopic Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows and was indeed excellent, I think Thompson should have won something for her phenomenal performance here.
Bearing has spent her life dedicated to the work of John Donne, the master of 17th-century metaphysical poetry, full of conceits and metaphors so deep that lifetimes are spent unraveling their full meaning. I remember reading his poem “The Compass” (which is quoted in the film) in my literature class and being at first confused and then blown away by the depth of meaning, the kind of depth that appeals to English professors like Bearing and made Helene Hanff “dizzy for Donne” in 84 Charing Cross Road. One of the amazing things about Wit is that it is almost a cinematic version of a Donne poem, much more understandable on the surface but boasting ever more profound layers of wisdom the further one goes.
So many concepts are touched on with earnest emotion: her doctors’ cold scrutiny of her as “research” rather than a human being; the disconnect between studying the concept of death and confronting it in reality; the inconveniences and ineptitude of health care, which anyone who has endured a hospital stay has experienced to some extent; and the universal desire for pity, even when one has denied it to others. Of all the ideas discussed, empathy is perhaps the most prominent. McDonald plays the best kind of nurse, possessing a firm hand while demonstrating genuine concern for her patients, even in the details, in marked contrast to the ambitious but indifferent young doctor Jason (Jonathan M. Woodward, from the Firefly episode “The Message”). While the doctors are able to view Bearing’s degenerating condition with clinical dispassion, she admits that her life has reached the point of corny sentiment, when the most desired by someone in pain is the touch of human kindness.
Despite a sweet flashback with her father, Bearing is sadly bereft of friends and loved ones. Throughout her ordeal, she gets only one visitor, whose tenderness offers one of the most tear-jerking scenes in recent memory and places Bearing’s life and life in general within a subtle religious context. It’s also a reminder that, after a life dedicated to mature wisdom and the quest for knowledge and meaning, even the simplest of acts and themes can mean more. Wit is a masterpiece of insight and emotion, which as Bearing’s own professor states about Donne’s poetry, is not merely concerned with wit but truth.
Best line: (Vivian Bearing, near the end) “It came so quickly after taking so long.”
VC’s best line: (Dr. Jason) “What do you do for exercise?” (Bearing) “Pace.”
Rhyme and Reason 