Tom & Viv

Anyone who has been captivated by the poetry of this great poet, and wondered about the man and the context in which such memorable verse was written, will want to see this film. It shows T S Eliot as a tormented man who is forced to make decisions about how to deal with the mental instability/illness of his wife. The performances are uniformly faultless, and the awful tragedy of mental illness in a marriage is chillingly depicted with deep sensitivity. The film challenges the viewer to judge Eliot as a man - Dafoe's performance brilliantly portrays the anguish of Eliot the man living in what apparently was an impossible marriage, and Eliot the public figure . The film also throws light on Eliot's fascination with the Church and the role it played in providing a still place in a world of personal mental turmoil. Highly recommended.

Michael Hasting' play of the same title, was seen in New York at the Public theater in 1986. Edward Herrmann and Kate Nelligan played the leading roles. In a way, Mr. Herrmann bore a resemblance to Tom, something that in the film, William Dafoe, an excellent actor, stands in sharp contrast with what the real Eliot looked like. Having seen both the play and the film before, we took another look recently when it was shown on cable.

Brian Gilbert, the director, showed a sensitivity to the material. He had the advantage of using locales where the real Tom and Viv lived in England, thus producing an immediacy and intimacy that serves the film well.

Tom, was a man that loved his adopted country. He was a man in awe of the culture and traditions. In fact, he adopted them as they were his own. His entry into that world in which he wanted to belong came to him courtesy of Vivienne Haigh-Wood, an upper class young woman who had her share of physical problems that plays greatly in this story. Viv's problems exacerbated her marital problems with Tom, and her family. Evidently, her condition could have been helped if the doctors that treated her would have gone in another direction, as it's pointed out toward the end of the film by a physician that clearly understood her malady.

The film is worth a look because of the excellent Miranda Richardson's portrayal of Viv, a woman she captures well for our benefit. This is one of the best appearances by Ms. Richardson on the screen. William Dafoe's Tom gives the impression of being a complicated man. Rosemary Harris is another joy in the film as Viv's mother Rose. Tim Dutton and Nickolas Grace have some good moments in the film.

"Tom and Viv" will not disappoint because Brian Gilbert's fine direction.

Unlike many biographical films this one doesn't alter things so much from the historical record. It doesn't make one person more sympathetic than they were in reality, and, as the ending shows, it reaches not a grand finale, but a whimper. (Apologies for the nod to Eliot's most famous line – which he found tiresome too)

This is a very sad story because the principals in real life were devoted to each other, but for a range of almost mysterious reasons to contemporary audiences, Vivienne's various maladies, mental and gynecological, are shrouded. Richardson carries this role well, and she almost owned the canon of disturbed women for a while in her career.

The stand out is Dafoe as Eliot. Dafoe has the solemn, dignified, presence; the accent of period Englishness of a certain class and his American accent suppressed in the voice but mingled nearly perfectly to sound like Eliot. In addition Eliot's life, especially during these turbulent chapters were smothered, and to see Dafoe incarnate Eliot gives life to a man who was often an abstracted mind.

This is a fine production in almost all respects although it may not have a wide appeal.

This film demonstrates how easily the state uses the psychiatric profession to unjustly incarcerate citizens, with full permission of family members, and eventually the victim themselves.

The scene of the "mind police" taking Viv (Miranda Richardson) out of a restaurant in broad daylight, and her struggle that ends with pushing her purse into the hands of a friend as she is brought into submission, is heart-wrenching.

The Tom and Viv of the title are T.S. Eliot and his wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, played by Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson in an Oscar-nominated performance.

I always come away from bio pics about artists thinking that the people around the artist would make a much more interesting subject for a film, because the artists themselves are usually rather dull. It's refreshing, then, that this film focuses much more on Vivienne and her struggles with mental illness than it does on the life of Eliot. The film's not entirely successful, but Richardson earned her Best Actress nomination and she's given able support by Rosemary Harris, who plays her mother in couple of brief scenes.

Grade: B