And dying pretty -- first in a posh palace on Nob Hill, then in a two-story treasure of Victoriana on a Mendocino cliff, and in the company of a private nurse with a ton of hair, miles of legs, and an acre of lip (Julia Roberts). And dying, if need be, after the curtain has fallen, so as not to bum out the audience. The Wings of the Dove it isn't. Even a tearjerker it isn't, though it may jerk a few hoots from the sophisticated. The leukemic Yalie, wanting to give his nurse something in return for the love he has gotten, decides to teach her some of life's finer things, such as his Ph.D. specialty, "the German Impressionists": Klimt(!), D.G. Rossetti(!!). (He says he's determined to finish the thesis before he dies; you want to tell him not to waste his time.) His pronunciation of the Polish-born pianist Artur Rubinstein, whom he claims to have met personally, is fun too: "Arthur" with a firm "th," as in Arthur Miller. If you took out all the head shots -- tokens of director Joel Schumacher's concern and sensitivity -- the movie would run about fifteen minutes. With Campbell Scott, Colleen Dewhurst (Scott's mother in real life but not here), and Ellen Burstyn (making a big impression in two brief scenes as Roberts's baby-voiced mother). (1991) — Duncan Shepherd