Synopsis:
Dying Young was rightly perceived in 1991 as an updated reversal on Love Story. Coasting on her reputation, Julia Roberts plays Hillary O'Neil, a carefree young middle-class woman who falls in love with wealthy leukemia victim Victor Geddes (Campbell Scott). Many of the scenes take place during Victor's chemotherapy sessions, so you can guess that this isn't a barrel of laughs. When originally previewed, the film carried the tragic ending found in its source, a novel by Marti Leimbach. None of the test audiences cared for that, so, for the umpteenth time, a Julia Roberts vehicle was shipped to general audiences with a totally revised denouement. Campbell Scott's real mother, the late Colleen Dewhurst, plays his "reel" mother in Dying Young. -- Hal Erickson (ed. note: Colleen Dewhurst' role was as a friend, not a mother, to Victor.)