Marvin's Room is a film about the quirkiness of families. Marvin Wakefield is an elderly man who has been slowly dying for the last twenty years as the opening credits show by wandering through his various pill bottles and medications which date from the early 70s until today. The other characters are introduced independently, and without interconnection. There's a disgruntled teenager, called Hank, played by Leonardo di Caprio, who burns down his home to express his angst at losing his father, but also to annoy his hairdresser mother, played by Meryl Streep. Diane Keaton undergoes bloodtests because her doctor is concerned that she has a "vitamin deficiency."

        Then the threads are quickly tied together. Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep amre sisters, and Marvin's daughters, Bessie and Lee. Add to the mix a whacky aunt named Ruth, who's hooked on daytime tv and Streep's younger son, Charlie, who spends all his time wearing owl like glasses and reading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

        So, in essence, Marvin's Room combines the most extreme and eccentric aspects of that strange animal called the family. At times the film borders on the melodramatic and hyper sentimental, but in many respects the mix comes startlingly close to reality. As Carly Simon sings during the closing credits, "I didn't choose you, and you didn't choose me," but there2 is something about families that both attracts and repels all of us. By the way, be sure you stay to hear Simon's song, its an important part of the movie.

        The film centres on four pairs of siblings who are basically the opposite of each other. Marvin and Ruth are the older generation, sick and in need of constant care. But they are really only props to the narrative, which focuses on the middle generation of the family. Keaton, the older sister who has given her life to care for her father and aunt, now needs the help of Streep, who pictures herself as a fashionable cosmotologist. But her life hasn't been easy either, as her two sons attest. Then there's Doctor Wally and his brother, Bob. Robert de Niro is superb as the pathologist who steps in as relief physician to care for Diane Keaton. When phis receptionist resigns without notice, Dr. Wally hires his brother to fill in. This is one of the scenarios that are the most unlikely in the film, but Bob is an important character. He's yet another indication that even though some might deny it, there's nothing quite like family.

        The film is based on a 1990 play first performed in Chicago's Goodman Theatre©, written by Scott McPherson and with a cast list like Streep, Keaton, di Caprio and de Nero, director Jerry Zaks seems to have no trouble in bringing to life this portrayal of a family coming to grips with each other and themselves. There are many occasions for guilty laughter in Marvin's Room, since often the heartiest guffaws come when we recognize ourselves and our kin in the quirkiness of the people on the screen.

        The film exists in that strange world somewhere between dream and nightmare, so that even though it occassionally feels overwhelmingly sentimental and contrived, overall, Marvin's Room is touching and effective. Its a film I wholeheartedly recommend.

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