Marvin’s Room by Scott McPherson 8 out of 10

Marvin’s Room by Scott McPherson

8 out of 10

This a sensitive, endearing drama, with a phenomenal cast that includes Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Diane Keaton and Robert de Niro.

Meryl Streep is Lee, a middle aged woman with a degree, as she likes to brag – a graduate from the school of…cosmetics – who has problems with her son, Hank aka a very young and brilliant Leonardo DiCaprio, who has set their house on fire is then institutionalized.

Lee appears to have an emotional instability, an inability to cope with or express emotions, given her abrupt departure, seventeen years before, when her father has had a stroke and one of the daughters decided she cannot cope with this adversity and just left for another state.

When she visits her son in the mental institution, the conversation with the doctor is more than interesting and revealing, it is amusing at times, given the penchant that psychiatrists and analysts have to try to provoke patients into finding the reasons for their actions, using introspection.

Lee says that people think that Hank may have experienced a breakdown because of his mother, to which the analyst asks what is the parent thinking and then it moves on to what do you mean…you think I did something to him? - a dialogue that is intriguing and comical.

When the mother comes to the room where Hank is, the son is sleeping and the dark comedy continues, for she leaves some candy on his chest, for when he wakes up, for she has no time, more importantly, she seems to lack a real interest or feelings for her child.

When she departs, she asks the doctor if this counts as a visit and the answer is evidently another…question- do you think this counts as a visit? – Anyway, Lee has to take Hank and his brother, Charlie, to Florida, after they receive the sad news.

Lee has a sister, Bessie aka Diane Keaton, who lives in Florida, where she stayed, after her sibling departed in haste, once the medical problems of their father have become serious, life threatening, caring for Marvin, their ailing parent, and an aunt, who is losing her mind.

Bessie has had some tests, which her doctor, Dr. Wally aka Robert de Niro, wants to repeat, for he wants to eliminate some possibilities, including leukemia, which alas is confirmed and the solution for the patient is to have a marrow transplant, if they can identify someone compatible.

After seventeen years, the two sisters communicate, Lee is reproaching her sibling that she calls only because she needs them now, otherwise she has not tried to send a card or another message in such a long time.

When she takes Marvin on the journey to Florida, he is unconvinced by the news and says that he had no idea he has an aunt and the answer is amusing: “"Remember, every Christmas, when I used to say 'Well, looks like Aunt Bessie didn't send us a card again this year?'"

This is a drama in which the public witnesses the ordeal, trauma and suffering of a victim of cancer – and one of the worst kinds at that – but there are passages where one cannot help the mirth – other instances are in the antechamber of the cabinet of Dr. Wally.

The physician has hired his brother as a secretary or assistant, but his relative is not so professional – he does not recognize his brother on the phone, stands up to enter the cabinet when the doctor invites Bessie in and when they talk about the needle for the marrow bone test, he asks how big is it, making patients and visitors uncomfortable

In the first place, Hank is reluctant to even take the test, never mind the potential transplant, but after he has a wild ride with his aunt, in the car, just on the edge of the ocean and then into the waves, the two become closer and the suspicion that he is only needed as medical help is subdued and eventually eliminated.

Meanwhile, the audience can see that Bessie is more than a kind woman, distressed, traumatized and suffering from her terminal disease, wearing a wig as a consequence – actually to cover for – her chemotherapy, confronted with the perspective of death, if a solution is not found.

She was something of a Wonder Woman, especially when compared with her runaway sister, for she has stayed with her father, cared for him and her aunt, as if one patient in her care was not enough and she defends her choice, when her self sacrifice is diminished and her sibling says that she has – more or less – wasted her life.

There is a moment when Lee is preparing to depart again, for she is unable to cope with adversity and trauma – positive psychology lists as one of the rules of happiness having a strategy to cope with trauma – and she packs her bags for she thinks she has to go, she does not stand this pain and suffering….just like seventeen years ago.

Lee has just seen her sister without the wig and the sight appears to be too much for her, but just as she is putting clothes, shoes in the suitcase, Hank enters the room and she has to confront her son.

This is a very complex, enriching, satisfying drama, where the protagonists are not presented as unreal, too good to be true individuals; on the contrary, they have the qualities of ordinary people – with the exception of Bessie, perhaps and her dedication to her father and aunt.

Lee is both superficial, selfish up to a point, self-absorbed – she condemns Hank for the attitude he has had towards her boyfriends, one of whom was just released from jail – but this changes when she spends more time with her sister and the rest of her family, in terrible circumstances.