Miranda Richardson does a first-rate job of portraying the high-spirited, slightly wacko Vivian. As time wears on, and Eliot achieves fame, her manic flights go higher and higher. Finally she is "put away" as an embarrassment. Even though her condition improves, neither her brother nor her husband appeal for her release. Someone would have to look after her then. They put in their years as her caretaker and now have other things to do. the exasperation one feels in the beginning of the movie toward Viv becomes a deep sympathy for the middle-aged woman planted in a gilded cage with nothing and no one of her own.
Review of Tom & Viv
