TWO WEEKS

Two Weeks is the second movie I’ve seen recently that deals with death and dying. Let’s face it, we all die.

Two Weeks attempted to convey how four siblings dealt with the death of their Mother. Having seem the
movie, I am still trying to figure out how well they did. With such a weighty subject, a director would have to be unusally talented to do justice to it.

This movie would be ideal to have student discussions around, all the way from undergraduates to med school. Not only the subject but the characters and their depth or lack thereof, would lend itself to much discussion.

As this family struggled to come to grips with the Mom’s death, the family dynamics left something to be desired. And, of course, as observers, we get a chance to observe the dysfunctional nature of who they are. Sometimes, you just wanted to say, “grow up.”

It is hard to say exactly what made this picture so unsatisfying. Unappealing characters? To be fair, I think the movie tried to do too much in two hours. Americans are so impatient and have the attention span of a tree.

Sally Field was great. She pretty much carried the movie. I liked the way they did these little vignettes with her on camera, not penetrating enough, however. I’m glad she’s back at work in TV. I’ve felt that she got way too much negativity from the”they really love me” parody when she won an academy award. Oh well.

Even with reservations, I still recommend this movie. See it, two parachutes.