Saturday, July 26, 2014

Classic Movie Review: AWAKENINGS (1990) A+


(Review partially from Rotten Tomatoes): 

Excellent movie about the state of neurology in1969.   Based on a true story as related by neurologist Oliver Sacks, AWAKENINGS stars Robin Williams as the Sacks counterpart, here named Dr. Malcolm Sayer. Sayer takes a job at a Bronx psychiatric hospital in 1969, and is put in charge of several  catatonic patients who, under Sayer's painstaking guidance, begin responding to certain stimulati

Apprised of the efficacy of a new drug called L-DOPA in treating degenerative-disease victims, Sayer is given permission to test the drug on one of his patients: Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro), who has not communicated with anyone since lapsing into catatonia as a child.  Acting by both De Niro and Robin Williams is great . . . especially De Nero who has spastic fits as a patient

The powerful subplot of the movie centers around the appreciation of even the most simple aspects of life (that is all around us, every day) by the people released from their catatonic state.

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