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A cast this good could make even the weepiest of Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations into something worth watching and mildly notable. Such is the case here with Marvin’s Room, a movie that aims for the tear-ducts, but at least finds some humor, warmth and great acting along the way.
Based on an Off-Broadway play, Marvin’s Room sees an estranged family come back together to make peace with the past and face looming illness together. Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep star as sisters who are forced back together after 20 years apart. Keaton has spent the years devoted to taking care of their ill father (Hume Cronyn) and elderly aunt (Gwen Verdon). With a diagnosis of leukemia, Keaton is in dire need of a bone marrow transplant, so she calls up her sister and asks that she come visit and see if they’re a match. The role feels tailor made for Keaton, allowing her to be remarkably restrained and hit moments of quiet grace.
Streep gets the showier role of the chain-smoking sister who just escaped a bad marriage and now has to raise two kids on her own. Her oldest son (Leonardo DiCaprio) set fire to their house, and her youngest (Hal Scardino) is quiet and bookish. She ran away and stayed away for 20 years, and comes back with a list of resentments and the urge to drop everything and run away at the first sign of trouble. Streep does great work, which isn’t a shock, but given her recent run of domineering performances that feel out-of-key with everyone else (August: Osage County), it’s refreshing to look back and see her engaging in an ensemble so smoothly.
While Marvin’s Room is dominated by the story of the two sisters hashing it out, making peace, and bringing up old wounds and finding a place to heal, the supporting players are given ample room to do a lot of solid work. Cronyn has no lines, but is effective in crafting a small portrait of how awfully old age can wreck a person. Verdon just about steals the show as the absent-minded aunt, providing the film with moments of humor and small bits of relief from the emotional sucker punches. And DiCaprio creates an affecting look at a wild-child learning to be tamed in his supporting turn. Only Robert De Niro and Dan Hedaya feel like an unnecessary bit of distracting star casting and under-utilized character actor, respectively, in very minor roles.
While the film is glossy and clearly aimed at prestige picture glory, Marvin’s Room at least feels genuine in its sympathy and tear-jerking impulses. It never quite overcomes its stage bound origins, the dialog and narrative structure can often feel like a theatrical production, but it’s sensitively directed by Jerry Zaks. It’s a mixed bag, but as far as big screen movies about fractured families coming together that feels a little bit like a big budget TV movie go, Marvin’s Room is one of the better productions.
