Two Weeks

Written/directed by Steve Stockman

Two Weeks is a film without plot surprises. In the opening moments of the film, you learn that Anita Bergman (Sally Field), whom you quickly come to admire and adore, has terminal cancer and her death is imminent. Her four adult children (Ben Chaplin, Julianne Nicholson, Tom Cavanagh and Glenn Howerton) have returned to the family nest to serve as their mother’s hospice team during the final two weeks of her life. They’ve suspended their sibling squabbles and familial angst as best they can to enjoy moments of warmth and humor with their mother, to help her to endure the puking and pain that plague her, to overcome her fear and resentment and to work towards the resolution of outstanding family issues.

So, Two Weeks is a film with a foregone conclusion, and it’s about a situation many have experienced closely enough that it’s difficult not to have some strong personal impressions and expectations about how the scenario should play out. It’s a subject that’s particularly difficult for anyone to face. All of which means Two Weeks has a lot to live up to and, thankfully, it does.

Without inventing clever story twists or indulging in soapy sentimentality, writer/director Steve Stockman creates an altogether gripping, profoundly moving cinematic experience of a loved one’s final days of life. A period that’s all too brief for the expression of loving goodbyes, yet seems to be an eternity of pain and helpless waiting. Surprisingly, Two Weeks does indeed have a surprising element: its humor. When a rabbi comes to comfort Anita and yells at her as though she’s deaf not dying, the family cracks up—and it’s a relief that the audience can enjoy a laugh as well.

Stockman based Two Weeks on his experiences during his own mother’s death, and there’s not one false note in the script. That integrity is carried over to the performances by the ensemble. Sally Field is magnificent: dividing her things amongst her children, reassuring her grandchildren, silently reaching for her son to hug him, stuffing her mouth with spareribs that she must spit out instead of swallow and dosing herself with morphine to take the edge off her pain.

She’s honest and heartbreaking. Her assembled children, their spouses and children are all sensitive, smart and suitably restrained in their performances. They don’t drown you in their emotions, thereby giving you some breathing space to explore your own.

The film’s point of view is beautifully balanced. Stockman pays equal attention to the experiences of Anita and of her children. Two Weeks doesn’t pretend to present a cure, but it does reassure that even for the dying there are moments of joy as life goes on—until it doesn’t.