Two Weeks (2006)

Really Surprised!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

As usual I loved this movie-I have always been a fan of Sally Field-I think she does an excellent job of convincing the audience of the sincerity of her character. I want that pink couch (love seat) that was in the movie. Pink is my favorite color (I have dusty rose carpet throughout my house) and that pink couch would finish the look. Please let me know where I can get that couch! Thank you. Sally is wonderful in this movie and of course made me cry-I can't imagine how hard it would be to be dying and hoping that the children don't argue about anything. Sally made me also laugh with her comments about her "favorite" child.

There isn't anything actually "wrong" with this movie, "2 Weeks", but by the same token, it is hard to find anything "right" about it. While all the actors are good here, the story doesn't seem to have a point other than how 4 grown children might get back together while they wait for their 60-something mother to die.I have always liked Sally Field, all the way back to her days on TV as the "Flying Nun." Here she is good as Anita Bergman, diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One of the symptoms of dying by her particular cancer is the inability to eat, because her intestinal tract is apparently blocked. So she has to be fed through her veins. She is not totally bedridden, but she is confined to her home.There is an attempt to lighten the mood when Anita sees all the others eating ribs and wants some too. So she chews the meat, and then spits it out after chewing it. So, around the table everyone else chews their food and then spits it out. That scene didn't work for me, it didn't make the movie any better.Ben Chaplin is her older son, a filmmaker who earlier had filmed Anita as he asked her questions, to save for posterity. His character is Keith Bergman. Tom Cavanagh of TV's "Ed" fame is the next brother Barry Bergman. The lone sister is Julianne Nicholson as Emily Bergman. And the youngest, with the young wife from hell, is Glenn Howerton as Matthew Bergman.So much of the movie was to see how 4 adult siblings might handle being together for their mother's last 14 days. Marginally interesting, but when I asked my wife what was the message, she answered, "I don't really know." I could not recommend this movie to friends.

The R Rating is totally uncalled for. It's a really long, tough look at what it's like to sit through a dying parent's last days and the roles people take on in this situation. Some may call it cliché but that's life and death. I've seen every one of the personalities depicted - even the Rabi! The quick move from limited theater release to DVD is strange. Usually the star appears on a few talk shows and plugs the movie. Sally seemed tied up with "Brothers and Sisters" when the movie went into limited showing. I think the movie distributors were afraid of it. What a shame that a movie like this isn't getting full play in theaters. Does this mean Sally won't have any chance at Oscar nomination for her work? I think it's a symptom of our inability to deal with death in America. Trivia - Sally Fields' son attended Syracuse University.

Saw this film at an exclusive NYC advance screening presented by Gen Art, with the writer/director present, and I gotta say: if you've ever lost a loved one, this film will have you nodding in remembrance. If you've yet to lose a loved one...it's a good primer on how to handle it.Great performances all around, and I liked the way the film expertly balances comedy with drama. It's a fact of life that we all have to deal with this subject sometime...and a film like this deserves attention because it's one of the few to tackle a delicate subject with grace and humor.