A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

Couple Bri and Sheila dedicate all their time to caring for their daughter Jo, who suffers from cerebral palsy and has been unresponsive ever since she was a baby.

To try and keep their spirits up and their marriage together, they have taken to using dark humor and funny voices around their girl. They even make up her side of the conversations. The doctor they consulted when she was a baby (a German or Viennese, they don't quite remember) referred to her as a vegetable, because the official terms for everything that was wrong with her was too much of a mouthful.

Bri would like to have her institutionalized and even fantasizes about killing the girl. He is also slacking when she his left in his care and forgets some medicine or other. Sheila, however, is dedicating as much time as she possibly can to caring for their daughter.

Not only does the marriage suffer, visits from a couple of friends, Freddie and Pam, are also somewhat embarrassing for everyone involved. Pam is uncomfortable about being around a sick child while Freddie is overly cheerful. He tries to help by dishing out advice about putting her in a 'special school' so that they can get on with their lives. Pam wonders aloud whether it wouldn't be better for the child to die, even stirring the conversation towards euthanasia and the way the Nazis dealt with sickness. The opening for her little rant was given by Bri himself, who told them a made up story about how he had suffocated Jo with a pillow earlier.

Jo takes a turn for the worst and after Pam and Freddie leave to get medical assistance, Bri takes the girl out into the cold with him to leave her in the garden. But when the girl appears to be unresponsive he takes her back inside, saying, "I believe it is all over." But the ambulance arrives in the nick of time and Jo survives, much to Bri's apparent disappointment.

Sheila and Jo return from the hospital again the next day and discuss the possibility of finding a hospital for their daughter to stay in for a few weeks every year so that they could find time to go on vacations. But Bri is done with this version of normalcy and - instead of going to work as his wife believes - he boards a train to London.

Brilliantly acted by everyone involved.

8/10