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Cancer Major 
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DISABILITY |
Cancer
Wheelchair |
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DIRECTOR |
Robert Ellis
Miller
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NOTES |
This is an
odd film which mixes uncomfortably fantasy and |
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There's a
silly beginning in which Dalton takes a car and the |
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car salesman
on a frightening ride. |
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Later in
hospital because he has terminal cancer he plays the |
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funny man.
Opposite him is the morose Anthony Edwards an |
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American pro
football player who also has cancer. In a |
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corner of
the ward is a neat little cliché which is the bed that is always
surrounded by curtains and no one sees the person inside. |
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Dalton's
hair is falling out but he wears a fetching little bob hat. Edwards
still has his hair but has to use a wheelchair to get about. |
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I complain
about all those TV films in which everyone is |
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exhorting
the patient to be positive. In the British version, |
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being
positive means giving meaning to the last days of your |
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life by
living it up. Remember the journey to Las Vegas in |
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"Girls'
Night" (1997). Is Vegas really suitable as a detour on |
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the way to
the cemetery (well, yes, it is because you'll meet |
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there lots
of people, mainly women of large proportions, sitting in front of
slot machines acting like zombies.) |
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Our boys
steal an ambulance and have fun. At the end
of the trip, or what brings the trip to an end is Edwards
dying. But who cares because the film makers haven't
bothered to catch our interest. The sad death of a young man
goes over our heads. And the whole has been more black
than comedy. |
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Notes
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