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MRS. HARRIS DVD
Despite the popularity of the Dr. Tarnower's revolutionary "lose one pound per day" diet, the womanizing ways of the Casanova cardiologist would soon come to a brutal end at the hands of his jealous, prescription drug-addicted lover Jean Harris (Annette Bening). Driven to despair after their fourteen-year romance failed to result in marriage and enraged by Dr. Tarnower's shameless status as a ladies man, Harris confronts her former lover in one violent, final act of desperation.
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Intro
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Synopsis
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Cast and Credits
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This HBO Films presentation chronicles the personal awakening of a
longtime literary scholar (two-time Oscar-winner Emma Thompson),
who learns the importance of simple human kindness when faced with
the most daunting of crises: a diagnosis of advanced cancer.
The film's principal character is Vivian Bearing, Ph.D. (Thompson),
a 48-year-old professor specializing in the forbidding work of 17th
Century metaphysical poet John Donne. With biting humor and wit, Vivian
approaches her illness as she would one of Donne's sonnets, aggressively
probing and intensely rational.
However, over the course of eight months of high-dose chemotherapy,
and several flashbacks to her childhood and teaching years, Vivian
sees many of the smug assumptions about her life and legacy explode
in the face of her growing dependency on others.
Although it is adapted (by Nichols and Thompson) from an exceptional
play, the power and poignancy of HBO's Wit comes from a tour-de-force
performance by Thompson, as well as brilliantly conceived direction
from Nichols, who uses his cinematic skills to make the film a far
more intimate experience than was possible on stage.
Directed by fellow Oscar-winner Mike Nichols, and adapted from
Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the film co-stars
Audra McDonald, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins,
Jonathan M. Woodward and Harold Pinter.
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