You can tell there's a problem with a romantic drama when you find yourself not really caring whether or not the couple gets together at the end. That, unfortunately, was my problem with "Dying Young" a movie that I was hoping would stir my emotions, since I am usually a sucker for pictures like this. "Dying Young" stars Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott, the latter as a young man sick with leukemia, the former as his nurse. As you would expect, it's a Florence Nightingale tale with the two falling in love. But the fault does not lie with its two stars, and not at all with its director, Joel Schumacher, but with its writer, Richard Friedenberg.
The screenplay is rather limp, playing with the rhythms of conventional melodrama far too often, and without any real zing. A movie can get by with being conventional, if a lot of heart is poured into it by the storyteller. But that is not the case here. Gifted as they are, Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts do not have a whole terrible lot to work with. She is hired by him, he takes a shine to her (could any man not?), she resists him but pities him, and then warms up, and voila! They're sleeping together. But that was all that I could sense from the picture. The two stars steaming up the screen every once in a while. They did not seem to have a real relationship. I cared a little more whether Mr. Scott's character lived or died, but even at the end, I couldn't have felt less on the question of whether or not the couple would be able to come together again. As if we didn't already know and expect. The script also touches on some good subjects. Chemotherapy, for instance and how it can help kill cancer, but also make life for the patient a nightmare. However, the narrative does not develop these moments to register an appropriate impact.
Thankfully, the movie makes the wise choice of limiting scenes with the leading lady's mother. First of all, the dialogue is silly (she actually tells her daughter to move back in with her boyfriend, even though she caught him in bed with another woman, just because he paid the bills) and Ellen Burstyn's performance is sheer ham-acting.
Telling the story in a solid narrative also seems to be Mr. Friedenberg's weakness. For the movie is told with a lot of big lumps to bounce over. Take for instance, a rather oddball scene with Vincent D'Onofrio. Of course, being a romantic drama, there has to be a secondary character to make the leading man jealous. Anyway, Mr. D'Onofrio brings them a television set, and they watch "Jeopardy." The sequence proceeds to them trying to outguess each other on what the answers are, and just when it seems it might be leading somewhere, it all ends. The moment is nice enough, and grabbed my attention, but when it cut off, it left me wondering just what on earth the point of it all was. Yes, it did more or less resurface twenty minutes later at a predictable dinner scene, but not registering with much impact. And speaking of which, Miss Roberts' decision to run away from the hospital to the country house is rather awkward. Given the fact that the characters are not romantically involved yet.
And just what was the point of Miss Roberts running into her ex-boyfriend in a bar? Where to or from did the scene come from? Director Schumacher is to be commended. Except in a couple of jump cut scenes at the beginning, in which we see Mr. Scott suffering from chemotherapy, he does a solid job of directing. Most lovely are his moving images at a country house the couple move into about midway through the picture. A scene in bed between Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts is handled wonderfully, with the camera swishing away from them just as they start to kiss and fondle each other, and then finding the mirror across the room. He also does something that I consider wise. Avoiding the sex scene. He shows us the beginning, and the end, but not the middle. Evidently, he had more faith in the story than the screenwriter.
Not to say that Richard Friedenberg's screenplay is a hack-job piece of work. It's adequate enough, but not impassioned. The few tender moments are generated by Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts, and thanks to Mr. Schumacher's fabulous directing. And the movie as a whole is not bad by a long shot. But by the end of it all, it did not seem to matter what became of either character, and I did not feel as if I had gotten to know either of them. As a result, their relationship did not seem to amount to a whole heck of a lot. It's a great idea, with good intentions and good acting, but not much heart. Maybe the original novel by Marti Leimbach works better. I would be interested in finding out.
The screenplay is rather limp, playing with the rhythms of conventional melodrama far too often, and without any real zing. A movie can get by with being conventional, if a lot of heart is poured into it by the storyteller. But that is not the case here. Gifted as they are, Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts do not have a whole terrible lot to work with. She is hired by him, he takes a shine to her (could any man not?), she resists him but pities him, and then warms up, and voila! They're sleeping together. But that was all that I could sense from the picture. The two stars steaming up the screen every once in a while. They did not seem to have a real relationship. I cared a little more whether Mr. Scott's character lived or died, but even at the end, I couldn't have felt less on the question of whether or not the couple would be able to come together again. As if we didn't already know and expect. The script also touches on some good subjects. Chemotherapy, for instance and how it can help kill cancer, but also make life for the patient a nightmare. However, the narrative does not develop these moments to register an appropriate impact.
Thankfully, the movie makes the wise choice of limiting scenes with the leading lady's mother. First of all, the dialogue is silly (she actually tells her daughter to move back in with her boyfriend, even though she caught him in bed with another woman, just because he paid the bills) and Ellen Burstyn's performance is sheer ham-acting.
Telling the story in a solid narrative also seems to be Mr. Friedenberg's weakness. For the movie is told with a lot of big lumps to bounce over. Take for instance, a rather oddball scene with Vincent D'Onofrio. Of course, being a romantic drama, there has to be a secondary character to make the leading man jealous. Anyway, Mr. D'Onofrio brings them a television set, and they watch "Jeopardy." The sequence proceeds to them trying to outguess each other on what the answers are, and just when it seems it might be leading somewhere, it all ends. The moment is nice enough, and grabbed my attention, but when it cut off, it left me wondering just what on earth the point of it all was. Yes, it did more or less resurface twenty minutes later at a predictable dinner scene, but not registering with much impact. And speaking of which, Miss Roberts' decision to run away from the hospital to the country house is rather awkward. Given the fact that the characters are not romantically involved yet.
And just what was the point of Miss Roberts running into her ex-boyfriend in a bar? Where to or from did the scene come from? Director Schumacher is to be commended. Except in a couple of jump cut scenes at the beginning, in which we see Mr. Scott suffering from chemotherapy, he does a solid job of directing. Most lovely are his moving images at a country house the couple move into about midway through the picture. A scene in bed between Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts is handled wonderfully, with the camera swishing away from them just as they start to kiss and fondle each other, and then finding the mirror across the room. He also does something that I consider wise. Avoiding the sex scene. He shows us the beginning, and the end, but not the middle. Evidently, he had more faith in the story than the screenwriter.
Not to say that Richard Friedenberg's screenplay is a hack-job piece of work. It's adequate enough, but not impassioned. The few tender moments are generated by Mr. Scott and Miss Roberts, and thanks to Mr. Schumacher's fabulous directing. And the movie as a whole is not bad by a long shot. But by the end of it all, it did not seem to matter what became of either character, and I did not feel as if I had gotten to know either of them. As a result, their relationship did not seem to amount to a whole heck of a lot. It's a great idea, with good intentions and good acting, but not much heart. Maybe the original novel by Marti Leimbach works better. I would be interested in finding out.