So I saw the original play this is adapted from twice recently, and read it, because it totally blew me away. Truly extraordinary piece of writing. But this... frustrated the hell out of me. It's such a shame, because it comes close to being fantastic, and Thompson's performance is fucking amazing. I'm amazed she didn't win anything for it. But as an adaptation of the play, I can't help but feel the Nichols just missed the point somehow. Although, sure, the main character is dying of cancer, and that's the bulk of the action, I didn't really view it as a play that was as much
about cancer as this ended up being. Just in all the editing choices, especially in the second half, they highlighted the 'oh the horror, she's really ill' stuff over the whole intellectual/John Donne related stuff. I don't know, I would probably have thought it was great if I didn't know the play, and it was still really powerful, but I just ended up finding it a bit lame and movie of the week, which the play wasn't at all...