Dying Young

Dying Young
Promotional poster
Directed by	Joel Schumacher
Produced by	Sally Field Kevin McCormick
Written by	Marti Leimbach Richard Friedenberg
Starring	Julia Roberts Campbell Scott
Music by	James Newton-Howard
Cinematography	Juan Ruiz Archia
Editing by	Robert Brown Jim Prior
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 21, 1991 (1991-06-21)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$33,669,000

Dying Young is a 1991 American romance film, directed by Joel Schumacher. It is based on a novel of the same name by Marti Leimbach, and stars Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott with Vincent D'Onofrio, Colleen Dewhurst and Ellen Burstyn. The original music score was composed by James Newton-Howard.

Plot

Hilary O'Neil (Julia Roberts) is a pretty, outgoing yet cautious young woman who has had little luck in work or love. After recently parting ways with her boyfriend when she caught him cheating, Hilary finds herself living with her eccentric mother (Ellen Burstyn).

One day, Hilary answers an ad in a newspaper for a nurse only to find herself being escorted out before the interview starts.

Victor Gettes (Campbell Scott) is a well-educated, rich, and shy 28 year-old. As the film progresses, Victor's health worsens progressively, due to leukemia. Despite his father's protests, Victor hires Hilary to be his live-in caretaker while he undergoes a traumatic course of chemotherapy. Hillary becomes insecure of her ability to care for Victor after her first exposure to the side effects of his chemotherapy treatment. She studies about leukemia and stocks healthier food in the kitchen.

He is "finished" with his chemotherapy and suggests they take a vacation to the coast. They rent a house and she begins to feel that she's no longer needed to care for him. They fall in love and continue living at the coast.

He's hiding his use of morphine to kill the pain. During dinner with one of the friends they made there Victor starts acting aggressively and irrationally. Victor collapses and is helped to bed. She searches the garbage and discovers his used syringes. She confronts him and he admits he wasn't finished with his chemotherapy. He explains that he wants quality in his life and she says that he's been "lying" to her.

She calls his Father and he comes to take him home but he wants to stay for one last (Christmas) party. Hilary and Victor reconnect at the party and he tells her that he is leaving with his father to go back to the hospital in the morning. After speaking with Victor's father who says Victor wants to spend one night alone before leaving, Hilary goes back to the house they rented only to find Victor packing clothes, ready to run away and not go with his father to the hospital. Hilary confronts him about running away and Victor admits that he's afraid of hoping. At this confession, Hilary finally tells Victor she loves him and they then decide to go back to the hospital where he will "fight" for his life with Hilary. The last frame of the movie shows Victor and Hilary leaving the house, which has a small picture of Gustav Klimt's "Adam and Eve" (the first painting Victor shows Hilary) in the window.

External links

• Dying Young at the Internet Movie Database
• Dying Young at AllRovi
• Dying Young at Rotten Tomatoes
• Production notes