Dying Young Reviews

Attempting to bring off an old-fashioned Hollywood tearjerker, in the grand tradition of DARK VICTORY and LOVE STORY, former fashion designer turned screenwriter turned director Joel Schumacher has converted Richard Friedenberg's cliche-ridden, uninspired script into a generally tasteful though altogether unexciting cinematic experience. Hillary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) answers a classified ad from someone wanting "a young attractive female with some nursing skills." Garbed in her tightest miniskirt, Hillary hops over to Nob Hill where she is greeted by Richard Geddes (David Selby), the stern father of Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott), a thin-as-a-rail young man scheduled to begin chemotherapy treatments. Papa Geddes takes one look at Hillary and, while showing her the door, assures her that she is not at all what he had in mind for his son. Fortunately for Victor, who's gotten a good look at Hillary's gorgeous gams, his father leaves that very day for an extended business trip abroad. He hires Hillary and she does her best to make Victor comfortable within the limitations of her lack of nursing experience. Time passes (how much time--days or weeks--is anybody's guess) and despite all the odds, these two totally mismatched personalities fall in love. Their passion begins in Victor's bedroom and continues along a variety of California beaches. The only "antagonist" daunting the lovers is Victor's deadly disease which, it is eventually learned, may not even be fatal. To their credit, Schumacher (THE LOST BOYS, FLATLINERS) and his screenwriter have endowed the Victor Geddes character with a splendid sense of dignity and, with the possible exception of one reasonably tastefully handled vomiting scene, the filmmakers keep the more unpleasant aspects of Victor's illness in the background. The key problem is that, despite a generally good performance from Scott, DYING YOUNG is consistently manipulative in its plot structure and character motivations--or lack of same. Why, for example, does Hillary hit the sack with Victor so soon after they've met--particularly considering his sickly appearance--and immediately after she has rejected his rather pathetic attempt at making a pass? What possible appeal does this desperately ill young man hold for a radiantly healthy and stunningly beautiful young woman? (Given the major medical plight of the 1990's, one might wonder why AIDS isn't the terminal illness slowly killing Scott, instead of the more genteel leukemia.) Everything about DYING YOUNG is so completely predictable that the average filmgoer can guess most of the incidents before they actually take place.