Tom & Viv

Tom & Viv
by Brian Gilbert

Tom & Viv
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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Miranda Richardson, Nickolas Grace, Rosemary Harris, Tim Dutton, Willem Dafoe
Director: Brian Gilbert
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
Running Time: 115 minutes
Release Date: 1996-09-11
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Publisher: Miramax
Studio: Miramax

VHS Movie Reviews of Tom & Viv

Movie Review: Excellent.
Summary: 4 Stars

Tom and Viv (Brian Gilbert, 1994)

Brian Gilbert's quietly heartbreaking drama Tom and Viv came and went with barely a blip at the box office, though it did get nominated for two Academy Awards; it should have been much more widely seen, I think. But what does the American moviegoing public, especially in the nineties, care for the life and marriage of a poet? For Tom and Viv are T. S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe, once again ignored by the Academy) and his mentally unstable wife Vivienne (Miranda Richardson, who did get a nomination for Best Actress).

The plot is simple and straightforward: American expatriate Tom, who according to the narration of Vivienne's brother Maurice (Tim Dutton) is trying to out-English the English, finds everything he's looking for in England in the person of Vivienne: she's upperclass, moneyed, a member of the British society, but with a wild, untameable streak. He falls in love and they elope, realizing only after they're married that Vivienne isn't just high-spirited, she's quite mentally unsound. Thus, Tom is brought in under the wing of Vivienne's family, made one of them by proxy, and much of the film alternates between Tom's attempts to handle Viv's erratic behavior and him commiserating with various family members. Finally, with everyone at the end of their collective rope, Tom and Maurice come up with a plan that will satisfy everyone except Vivienne herself.

This is a film that plays itself very close to the vest. It's staid, almost glacial on the surface, but simmers beneath with rage and despair. Dafoe and Richardson are both brilliant in their roles, and make an essentially plotless biopic into gripping viewing. Highly recommended. ****

Summary of Tom & Viv

Tom is T.S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe), the St. Louis-born poet who tried to turn himself into an Englishman. Viv is his wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Miranda Richardson). She's got money, which allows him to give up his job and focus on poetry. She urges him on, promotes him to the Bloomsbury group (which adopts him but looks down its nose at her), and begins to go slightly crazy. Is it Eliot's chilly demeanor (in a terrific repressed performance by Dafoe) that's driving her nuts, or something else? In fact, she suffers from misdiagnosed physical ailments, and a combination of drugs and alcohol send her around the bend. It's hard to get emotionally involved in Dafoe's Eliot or to really plug into this story, though Richardson's passion nearly pulls you in. --Marshall Fine

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