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Movie Review

The movie Wit is about a professor named Vivian Bearing who is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. She undergoes an experimental chemotherapy treatment overseen by Dr. Harvey Kelekian and medical fellow Jason Posner. Throughout her treatment, Vivian's condition deteriorates and she experiences great pain and suffering. However, the doctors are more focused on research than her comfort. In her final days, Vivian expresses her wish to not be resuscitated, but Jason violates this when he performs CPR on her dying body. The film is a powerful portrayal of death and highlights the importance of treating patients with empathy, dignity and respect as human beings rather than medical cases.

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139 views

Movie Review

The movie Wit is about a professor named Vivian Bearing who is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. She undergoes an experimental chemotherapy treatment overseen by Dr. Harvey Kelekian and medical fellow Jason Posner. Throughout her treatment, Vivian's condition deteriorates and she experiences great pain and suffering. However, the doctors are more focused on research than her comfort. In her final days, Vivian expresses her wish to not be resuscitated, but Jason violates this when he performs CPR on her dying body. The film is a powerful portrayal of death and highlights the importance of treating patients with empathy, dignity and respect as human beings rather than medical cases.

Uploaded by

joyrena ochondra
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Description: Wit is a movie about a woman who has diagnosed with metastatic Stage IV ovarian cancer

and is not being cured.

Introduction: The movie wit is an interesting movie that shows how death can be sometimes better for a
person. The movie started with the doctor breaking the news to Vivian Bearing, an English professor,
that she has terminal cancer. Wit (often spelled “W; t” is a 2001 American television movie directed by
Mike Nichols. Original release on March 24, 2001 with the running time of 98 minutes. The Genre of this
movie is a drama. It was written in 1991 Washington, D.C. Wit demonstrates that words, despite their
ability to define, describe, teach, inform, and comfort, often fall short. The purpose of this movie is in
the awareness of everyone, to know his or her rights not only as a patient, a nurse or a doctor, but also
as a human person.

Body: Wit is more than a case study of an individual struggling with experimental cancer treatment and,
in the process, her humanity. My opinion on this movie is that we should not ignore the fact that even
the most caring individuals are limited in their ability to provide excellent care by the characteristics of
systems of care. Care at the end of life can be provided in the hospital, at home with or without hospice
care, in a nursing home, etc.

Explanation: Vivian Bearing, the play’s protagonist, is a fifty-year-old woman with stage-four ovarian
cancer. She is also an indomitable force in the academic field of seventeenth-century poetry (particularly
the sonnets of John Donne) and a professor in a university English department. The play begins in the
oncology unit at the university hospital, where she is receiving an eight-week, experimental
chemotherapy treatment. Her overseeing doctor is Dr. Harvey Kelekian, who is also a university
professor, and the two have a lot in common, including their relentless work ethics and their
bemusement at undergraduate students’ lack of academic motivation. Jason Posner, the most
accomplished medical fellows in the oncology unit, is charged with administering much of Vivian’s care.
He, too, has a work ethic and a passion for knowledge that mirrors Vivian’s. Coincidentally, Jason was
once a student of Vivian’s, during a semester in which he challenged himself to ace the hardest classes
on campus. Vivian admires Jason for his drive and sees her younger self in him, although she is often
uncomfortable with their odd role-reversal in the context of the hospital; this time, her fate is in his
hands. Throughout the play, Vivian gets sicker and sicker, both due to her extremely aggressive
chemotherapy and due to her worsening cancer. However, as her body and mind begin to fail her, and
her days become more and more painful, she struggles to remain tough and brave. Vivian’s attending
nurse, Susie Monahan, comforts her as her cancer worsens, but Dr. Kelekian and Jason remain distant
and only concerned with their research. They continue to insist that she receive the full dose of
chemotherapy, and they never address her comfort and pain management. To them, Vivian is a body
that they can study rather than a human being.

In the final days of her life, Vivian calls out to Susie, who brings her a popsicle and comforts her as she
cries. They discuss what to do if Vivian’s heart stops, and she tells Susie that she wants a DNR: a “Do Not
Resuscitate” order.
In the play’s final scene, Vivian is visited by her old mentor, E. M. Ashford. E. M. offers to recite Donne
for her, but Vivian (who is on morphine and barely coherent) groans a refusal. Instead E. M. reads a
children’s book she has with her called The Runaway Bunny. After E.M. leaves, Jason enters and sees
that Vivian isn’t breathing. He frantically calls a code team and gives her CPR, despite knowing her to
wish not to be resuscitated. Susie tries to stop him and halt the code team that enters and starts
frantically working, but they only stop when Jason yells that he made a mistake.

Analysis and Evaluation: The movie “Wit” is a great educational tool for healthcare professionals in
terms of dealing with terminally ill patients. It teaches that nurses and medical professionals should
always remember that their patients are not a case nor illness nor experiment but rather human beings
with souls and pains.

After watching the film, I noticed that there were a lot of significant moral issues, which correlates with
the nursing profession. One of it is the proper way of upholding patient 's rights when it comes to
medical research. As a nursing major, I am aware that it is one of my ethical responsibilities to ensure
that utmost care and treatment are provided to my patient 's advocate which means that we should
stand and do something when we see malpractice being done to our patients.

I found the last scenes of the movie sad and emotional for me as a viewer. The director of the movie
portrays the last scenes as preparatory, because the main character, Dr. Bearing Vivian was a proud
person at the beginning of the movie and in the last parts she died a broken woman. It was a
painstakingly slow process, and where the viewer of the movie is in the mood of sadness and the person
is set to accept the process that would follow. I was shocked at how the main character had transformed
from a proud lecturer to the last person who was devastated. It is saddening because I hold the opinion
that she ought to have recovered and shared the transformed messages.

Conclusion: I have concluded that when one enters a hospital one is not entering a battle, rather, one
enters a process of discerning whether or not an illness can be cured, or managed, or if the body is in
the process of shutting down as it eases into death. To accept the inevitability of death, not as defeat,
but as a process, is difficult. Even as Christians, who believe in the resurrection and the immortality of
the soul, it is not easy to say “good-bye.”

Wit is a powerful drama about dying and death that will soften the heart of anyone who sees it.

Additional Details: This movie has inspired me to become better, not only in my studies, but also on
how I communicate and interact with people. These will be my foundations to treat my future patients,
and as to how I want to be treated by my doctors and co-nurses, most especially with respect, empathy
and justness.

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