Based on a true story (that of the film's co-writer Bea Hellman), Silence Like Glass is about a young ballerina named Eva Martin (Jami Gertz) who is diagnosed as having lymphocarsoma cancer. Taken to a cancer clinic, Eva is given a room with Claudia (Martha Plimpton), who has leukemia. Whereas Eva seems shy and retiring, Claudia is enraged and outspoken. Their friendship, and their separate battles against terrible odds, make up the balance of the film. True story aside, much of this movie has a false ring. While both Eva and Claudia each, in their own way, put up heroic fights, I found myself losing sympathy for the characters rather quickly. Eva tosses a cup of tea in her doctor's face when he gives her good news and then screams at him: he smiles. When Claudia gets ticked off at a friend, she beans the woman with a glass bottle (leaving her unconscious with a concussion): Claudia and Eva look at each other and giggle; end of scene. When Eva assists a suicide, and the doctors reprimand her (euthanasia being, at the least, a questionable action), she tells the doctors to go "fuck" themselves: the doctors walk into the hallway, and then have a huge belly laugh. Bull. Judged as a true story, Eva's eventual triumph over cancer is a success. As a movie, however, subject to the same criticisms as any other movie--it's a somewhat obnoxious melodramatic tearjerker, which will reel in only the most loyal of TV-movie fans. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)
Silence Like Glass
(1990) 102 min. R. $89.98. Media Home Entertainment. Library Journal
Silence Like Glass
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