THE LAST BEST YEAR
US, 1990, 100 minutes, Colour.
Mary Tyler Moore, Bernadette Peters, Brian Bedford, Dorothy Mc Guire, Kate Reid.
Directed by John Erman.
The Last Best Year is a moving, emotional telemovie. It focuses on a businesswoman and the diagnosing of her terminal cancer. Self-reliant, she confides in a counsellor, discovers the help of therapy and the wonder of friendship. She is able to go back over her past and comes to terms with it, as well as make friends with many people and influence their lives. It is a film about illness, therapy, dying.
Bernadette Peters, very subdued from her usual wacky and musical comedy roles, is persuasive as Jane Murray, the travel executive who has cancer. Mary Tyler Moore gives a wonderfully sympathetic performance as the therapist.
The film offers the feminine perspective on friendship and illness. The film is sensitively written and it was directed by John Erman (Stella). While some audiences might be deterred by this picture of therapy, by the reality of a woman facing her death, by the consequent sentiment, the film has a great deal of wisdom to offer - especially in its storytelling rather than in its explanations or lecturing about its issues.
1.Impact of this telemovie? The television audience? Designed for the wide and popular audience? Empathy and insight?
2.A woman's perspective? On illness, on therapy, on bonds of friendship, of help, of love?
3.The Chicago settings, the Missouri countryside? The contrasts? The musical score?
4.Audience awareness of cancer, its effect? Dying? The work of doctors, therapists? Treatment? Shortness of time?
5.The title, the real year of life for Jane? For the others?
6.Jane, seeing her in London, her lover? The relationship - and her asking him to come, to tell him about the illness, his blustering and inability to hear, his leaving her? At work, the doctor and the appointment, the tests? The meeting at the travel agency, her diplomacy? Her relationship with the superiors, their antagonism? Friendship with Peter, working with him? With Amy?
7.The doctor offering his diagnosis, telling her the truth? Amy and her realisation, talking with Jane? Going out, developing the friendship? Her telling John Dennis? John Dennis and his liking for Jane, offering her the job? Coming to visit, offering her the travel time and any help? Strong friendship?
8.Her being recommended to see Wendy, the initial encounter, her nervousness, unwillingness to talk? Leaving? Her experiences, wondering about her ability and inability to relate? Making the appointments? Her telling Wendy the story of her baby? The importance of the dream, her behaviour, the characters? Bringing it to therapy? Her growing ability to talk, being frank about herself? Wendy listening to the cues, taking her back to childhood? The story of the baby? Her being more at home in Wendy's office, getting the coffee? Their sharing? Her getting ready to go into the treatment program?
9.The importance of visiting her aunt, sharing the stories, the memories of her parents, the experience of love, misreading her parents and their affection and pride in her? Her decision to go to Kansas City, the interview with Sister Clare, talking with her about the baby, the legal aspects, the policy? Her disappointment? Sister Clare and her principles - but her writing to the parents? Jane's receiving of the letter from the parents, their gratitude for the child? The photo? The joy before she died in knowing about her son?
10.Her Catholic background, giving the church away for twenty years? Her going to the city, ambitions, the married man taking advantage of her, her pregnancy? The father not knowing? The therapy of her anger against the father? At the convent, the adoption of the child? The importance of her son coming to the final ceremony and remembering his mother? Wendy able to tell these stories to him?
11.The growth of the cancer, her getting worse? Friendship with Amy, the friends, playing cards? Her aunt visiting? Her love for Christmas and their decision to have an early Christmas? Presents, carols and Old MacDonald's Farm?
12.Mary Tyler Moore's portrait of Wendy: friendship with Sam, the support of her husband, her mother and the visits? Her discussion about her own grief with her husband and the decision to accept Jane as a client? Her handling the situation, reading the cues, not pressurising Jane? The bonds between them? The importance of the sessions, the quality of the talk, listening to the dream? Sam and his urgency about the treatment, the argument at the dinner table about Jane's freedom? Billy supporting her? The visits to the hospital, the therapy in hospital and the imagination, the anger with the pillow? The joyful visit to see the photo and read the letter?
13.Wendy's own grief, her glimpsing herself in the hospital corridor, not being able to see her ill father, her mother's upset? Her asking her mother directly - and her mother wondering why she was being criticised? Wendy's true assessment of her mother's behaviour - partly right, partly wrong? Her discussions with her own therapist?
14.Sam, his medical expertise, interviews with Jane, hopes for the treatment, the tests, the urgency of the treatment - and its not helping her?
15.Jane ready to die, admitting it? The importance of her Catholic memories, the need to go to confession, the visit of the priest? Her memory of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the description of her beauty - and Wendy listening, urging her to go into the light? Her death and going into the light, letting go?
16.Love for Jane uniting the group, their bonds with her? The final ceremony?
17.The importance of the dream sequence - Jane in her own dream, the attitudes of her superiors in the firm, their rejection of her? The rats gnawing at her - and her using this image in her therapy? Her going into the room and seeing the skeleton? The effectiveness of the visualising of the dream for therapy?
18.A portrait of life and death, illness? Love and friendship, therapy? Grief and sadness? A film of hope - for the meaning of Jane's life, for not aborting the child, for discovering friendship and wholeness?
