Mike Nichols (director of The Graduate, Primary Colors and Catch-22) helmed this exceptional TV movie, with Emma Thompson starring as Vivian, a professor of poetry who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She agrees to be a guinea pig for a new drug - one that puts her through eight months of hell with its harrowing side effects. Thompson gives a bravura performance as the determined, suffering woman, belittled by such blasé doctors as the one played by Christopher Lloyd. Though this is on the gloomy side, it is still recommended viewing. Thompson and Nichols worked together on the script, based on Margaret Edson's acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Writer Harold Pinter, himself recently diagnosed with cancer, plays Vivian's father.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes