I saw the movie Marvin’s Room on TV recently with Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, and Leonardo DiCaprio. It was a good one.

Diane and Meryl are two sisters who have been estranged for twenty years. They are so different. Diane Keaton is the “good� sister who stayed home and took care of her bedridden father and an aunt who needs loving care while Meryl, on the other hand, has gone through a marriage and has two sons, the oldest of whom is Leonardo, and is studying for a cosmetology degree. Meryl is the daughter that moved away, and is into the dating scene.

Meryl does not come off as what we would call a good mother. At the point I turned the TV on, Meryl goes to see Leonardo in the mental hospital to get him out for a week in case he is a bone marrow transplant donor for her sister Diane who has leukemia. Prompted by the staff, Leonardo apologizes to his mother for burning down the house. Meryl can’t really digest it, and her unresponsive response is: “Can we go now?� You get the picture.

There are two things that impressed me in the movie. One was the relationship between Meryl and her son Leonardo. Really, as awful as the mother was, there is such a deep connection between her and Leonardo. How very well children really know their mothers. They know all their faults. Nothing is hidden from the children. Leonardo knew his mother backwards and forwards, far better than she dared to know him.

The other key thing for me was the theme of the movie. This is the point at which self-centered Meryl starts to change. Meryl feels sorry for Diane who has devoted her life to taking care of others.

Diane is radiant and says to Meryl: “I’ve had love.�

Meryl says: “Yeah, Dad and Aunt Rose love you.�

Diane says: “That’s not what I mean. I mean I had love. I LOVED.�

Some Hollywood movies really know what they’re talking about. How there can be such great movies and such awful ones (even the titles are often awful) I don’t know.

What have you seen lately that was worth seeing?