Hilary O'Neil is a beautiful, outgoing yet cautious young woman with little luck in work or love. After recently parting ways with her boyfriend when she caught him cheating, Hilary lives with her eccentric mother. One day, Hilary answers an ad in a newspaper for a nurse only to find herself being escorted out before the interview starts.
Victor Geddes is a well-educated, rich, and shy 28-year-old battling leukemia. As his health worsens progressively, and despite his father's protests, Victor hires Hilary to be his live-in caretaker while undergoing a traumatic chemotherapy course. Hilary becomes insecure about her ability to care for Victor after her first exposure to the side effects of his chemotherapy treatment. She researches leukemia and stocks healthier food in the kitchen.
Victor is "finished" with his chemotherapy and suggests a vacation to the coast. They rent a house and Hilary begins to feel that she is no longer needed to care for him. They fall in love and continue living on the coast. Victor hides his use of morphine to kill the pain. During dinner with one of the friends they made at the coast, Victor starts acting aggressively and irrationally. He collapses and is helped to bed. Hilary searches the garbage and discovers his used syringes. She confronts him and he admits he was not finished with his chemotherapy. Victor explains that he wants quality in his life and Hilary says he has lied to her. She calls his father, who comes to take him home, but Victor 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 returns 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 he is 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 film's last scene 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.
Prior to its original 1991 release, Premiere predicted the film to be the highest-grossing movie that summer.[3]
Dying Young grossed $33.6 million domestically and $48.6 million internationally, with a worldwide total of $82.2 million.[2]
Critical response
Dying Young earned mainly negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 25% based on 40 reviews with the following consensus: "Dying's easy; it's making audiences care about the romance at the heart of this inert drama that proves difficult".[5] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.[6]
Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, and wrote: "Dying Young is a long, slow slog of a movie, up to its knees in drippy self-pity as it marches wearily toward its inevitable ending".[7]Variety wrote: "Julia's hot; Dying Young is lukewarm".[8]
The film was nominated for three MTV Movie Awards at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards: Best Female Performance and Most Desirable Female for Julia Roberts, and Best Breakthrough Performance for Campbell Scott.[9]
