When the film started, I wasn't sure if I'd be interested. This movie is portrayed from a very personal, one on one standpoint of a cancer patient. Memories, insights, humor and fears - Emma Thompson is phenomenal in this role! Never before has a movie pulled so much emotion from me from so many levels. Bravo!

I am a survivor and when this movie came out I actually though for once a movie that told an accurate view of life thru this horrible time. Boy was I wrong, what a load of crap! I am very surprised that more survivors have to posted the truth! The way her bs came out throughout this whole movie like it was poetry was a load, her overall lack of any knowledge about what people go through while this messes up their entire life was a very poor choice for her. I would have thought that she would have at least studied some patients and took note on what they went thru. Instead Mrs Thompson decided to spew crap and make it seem like deep poetic thoughts. What's load of rubbish this movie was and is, do NOTwaste your money even renting this pure fiction! I wish the academy would have given awards for the worst movies of all time so this could have won in a landslide! What a shame!!!! As a survivor to Mrs Thompson, you should be ashamed!!!!

Being a fan of Emma Thompson, I was anxious to see this....but wound up not exactly entertained, although I always appreciate her acting. Seeing a woman slowly die of cancer is not exactly an uplifting storyline, but that's what this is all about. I'm not surprised the film wasn't a big hit.What the story specifically focuses on is Emma ("Vivian Bering") being the subject of an experimental drug. She is dying of cancer and by being the "guinea pig," she courageously can demonstrate how effective this drug is even though she knows it isn't going to cure her."Bering" is a cold, intellectual college professor who, through this ordeal, slowly finds out the importance of people treating others with more humanity. That sounds inspiring, but it's a tough movie to sit through. Critics called it "intelligent" because Thomposn's character used an extensive vocabulary as she narrated her experiences. A so-so film but certainly not one I would watch a second time. Seeing Thompson bald and bitter throughout a good portion of the film wasn't fun, either!

Just a brief correction: Eileen Atkins plays Thompson's former professor (Evelyn 'E.M.' Ashford). The sympathetic nurse (Susie Monahan) is played by Audra McDonald in a very nuanced portrayal of a dedicated health care worker who brings a touch of caring back into the sterile medical research equation.This movie has many peaks and valleys for the viewer to experience along with the protagonist. I roared with laughter when, waiting uncomfortably in the stirrups for her former student to give her a gynecological exam, she opines that in retrospect she "should have given him an A." The scene in which the magnificent Atkins comes to Thompson's bedside and reads her a story had me bawling like a baby.Having seen Thompson's stage portrayal of the Fool in King Lear many years ago, I was already convinced she was one of the best actresses of our age. This gritty movie only confirms my original feelings.This is available on DVD. Do see it.