I loved the movie not only because Julia was present but because of the way she ended up falling for the ill guy. Not everybody these dayswould have done that but it just showed how love evolves in different places of our lives. I cried for the most part, alone of course.
Sometimes a new perspective....Learning to Live
DYING YOUNG has many of the markings of an Indie movie - good story, fine script, exploration of sensitive subject matter, solid acting. But this 1991 Joel Schumacher film has big stars, gorgeous settings, and as fine a music score as you can imagine, so it proves that Hollywood can get to the core of fine message film making after all.
Hilary O'Neil (Julia Roberts, radiant and in peak form acting-wise) lives in Oakland, CA with her ditzy demeaning mother (Ellen Burstyn) and has a lousy boyfriend and clearly needs a new life. She finds a job description in the newspaper that leads her to apply for a position of a nurse to a family living on elegant Nob Hill in San Francisco. Clearly out of her element but determined to better her life, she fakes her way through an interview with a Mr. Geddes (David Selby) and his butler Malachi (George Martin) and overheard by Victor Geddes (Cameron Scott), the son who has been living with leukemia for 10 years, only to be dismissed as unacceptable. After storming out of the mansion in disgust, Hilary is followed by Malachi who says she must come back for another interview - this time with Victor who is impressed with what he heard and saw and ultimately hires her.
Hilary's life changes dramatically as she lives in elegance and discovers the difficulties of caring for a cancer patient on cyclical chemotherapy. Between Victor's near-death bouts of post chemotherapy side effects, Victor shares his writings about art, introducing her to the works of Klimt and Rosetti and the joys of classical music. Hilary shares her lifestyle of bars and disco with Victor and the two become bonded. They eventually take a vacation after Victor informs her his chemotherapy is over and they enjoy the bliss of the wine country where they are nourished by friends, among whom are the wise Estelle Whittier (Colleen Dewhurst) and the funky Gordon (Vincent D'Onofrio). It is evident that Hilary learns from Victor and Victor from Hilary and it is a sharing and bonding that is beautiful and wholly believable. The film ends quietly with a tremendous reverence for life.
All of the actors give excellent performances and Schumacher paces the fluid action with such skill that he allows us to enter the lives of these people with grace and naturalness. It is good to encounter a film with heart that knows its message and its bounds. Grady Harp, April 05
A Story about Living Life to its Fullest
Not only a wonderful love story, but a great collection of music that will make you keep humming when the movie is over.
Its a story about life and what living is all about.
This 1991 thriller by Joseph Ruben (True Believer) works up to a point: Julia Roberts plays an abused wife who fakes her death and starts anew under a different identity in Iowa. Her psychopathic husband (Patrick Bergin) figures it out and stalks her and her new boyfriend (Kevin Anderson). The best part of the film is the moody isolation of Roberts's life with Bergin. Ruben ingeniously stakes out the story by presenting what looks like an ideal life between the two--a nice house on the ocean, a seemingly healthy sex life, etc.--and then, whammo! Vital to the plot but less interesting is everything afterward, but that's less an inherent script problem than it is obvious studio pressure to push Roberts as a cute star. There's even a sequence where the actress tries on a series of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julia Roberts - Patrick Bergin Director(s): Joseph Ruben DVD Release Date: Released the 02 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Stephen Frears reunites with the production talents who made the tempting Dangerous Liaisons for this new look at the infamous Dr. Jekyll (a deft John Malkovich). Instead of being in the laboratory where the good doctor unlocks his evil twin, we stay in the mansion overlooking the lab. An inquisitive, proper maid, Mary Reilly (Julia Roberts) slowly becomes Dr. Jekyll's confidant. Rather than a horror story, the film is a spooky mystery that keeps us in the dark, and what a wonderful dark Frears and his designers have fashioned. Roberts carries the movie, digging deep for her best dramatic work to date. Though some may wish she'd show more passion, she holds her emotions appropriately in check. The movie faced considerable, well-documented troubles, including the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julia Roberts - John Malkovich Director(s): Stephen Frears DVD Release Date: Released the 12 September 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Though Stepmom was dismissed as a contender in the 1998 Oscar race, it's worth giving a second chance to this rather cogent, sharp-tongued look at second chances. Susan Sarandon's performance as a mom about to be replaced by her ex-husband's new girlfriend (played by Julia Roberts) has a lot of bite, and it's a shame the script opted to marginalize and trivialize her plight in its final reel. Initially, the rancor that passes between divorced mom Jackie (Sarandon) and trendy fashion photographer Isabel (Roberts) rings true, aided by the sincerity of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) and the emotional plight of their children, who have the most to lose in their parents' divorce. As the drama makes clear, the kids are the real victims in the agony that ensues between old... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Julia Roberts - Susan Sarandon - Ed Harris Director(s): Chris Columbus DVD Release Date: Released the 22 May 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The writer-producer-director team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (Father of the Bride) can't lift this sugary ode to Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday to a believable--let alone enjoyable--plateau. Neither, unfortunately, can its two great and perfectly cast leads, Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts. As competing newspaper reporters after the same story, there should be enough sparks and brilliantly barbed dialogue flying between them to resurrect the screwball comedy genre of classic Hollywood. But the material isn't there, the charisma isn't there, and the direction (by Shyer) certainly isn't there. At more than two hours, the film begins to dismantle itself, and the cute factor becomes a pain. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nick Nolte - Julia Roberts Director(s): Charles Shyer DVD Release Date: Released the 20 February 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A sweet and sassy comedy about the bonds of sisterhood, Mystic Pizza offers the opportunity to see some solid young actors early in their careers. Three sisters of blue-collar Portuguese descent work in a pizzeria in the coastal town of Mystic, Connecticut. Each has her own unique romantic entanglements. One is the fast girl in town (Julia Roberts), who falls for a rich kid but wonders if she'll ever be accepted; one is the lifelong local girl (Lili Taylor) in love with her fisherman boyfriend (Vincent D'Onofrio) but scared of what marriage will do to their sex lives; and the youngest sister (Annabeth Gish) dreams of going to Yale but during a summer of baby-sitting has an affair with a married man. Through it all each sister depends on the others regardless of the complications.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Annabeth Gish - Julia Roberts - Lili Taylor Director(s): Donald Petrie DVD Release Date: Released the 14 November 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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