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AwakeningsRating:
Release Date: 28 August, 2001 Retail Price: $14.94 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (12 total) |
Awakenings Reviews
I'm awake, thanks to this wonderful film!
`Awakenings' is truly one of the most heartbreaking and heartwarming films I've ever had the experience to see. Starring two brilliant actors, Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, `Awakenings' gives us a tragic true story that will open our minds and ours hearts for the full two-hour running time. The story of Doctor Sayer's (Williams) as he tries to cure some 15 patients in his ward is sure to strike many a chord. This film as been hailed by critics and has been loved by Oscar so why not everyone else.
The film opens with a young boy named Leonard. Leonard is getting very sick, so sick he can't move his hands. It's heartbreaking to watch him try and hide his sickness, placing his schoolbook under his desk so the teacher won't find out his disability (by seeing how messy his handwriting has become).
Fast-forward to the year 1969 when Doctor Sayer is hired as the new neurologist at a chronic clinic. Upon arriving and beginning his work he sees that these patients suffering from a disease that makes them immobile and unable to speak, may not be as incurable as the other staff believe. Linking all the patients to post-encephalitis he decides to administer one patient, Leonard (De Niro) with L-Dopa, a drug used for Parkinson's patients, in an effort to reverse his crippling disorder. Miraculously the medicine works and Leonard is able to move again for the first time in thirty years. As the remaining patients are given the drug there is an air of false hope, hope that all is better.
As time passes Leonard falls in love for the first time with Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), a young woman who visits her father who has suffered a stroke. The two of them form a bond that is touching to watch. Time though also brings bad news. The medicine doesn't seem to work passed a certain point and Leonard's condition is worsening. He suffers from uncontrollable ticks and mood swings and it's apparent that what they deemed a miracle may indeed be the opposite.
This film shows us the value of life, the lives we all take for granted. Listening to Leonard speak of how wonderful it is to be alive is truly inspiring, and watching a man with nothing but life to live get robbed of the chance is heartbreaking to say the least. As Leonard learns he also teaches, helping Sayer's, a man who is repressed and reclusive, break out of his shell and understand that life is only life if you live it. The second half of this film will take out your heart and tear it to shreds, and the fact that De Niro is so wonderful in this film doesn't help in the tearjerker department. Falling in love with Leonard will only make the final frames worse, but it's unavoidable. The film is done brilliantly, each frame adding layers to the films message and importance. There's one scene in particular that really touched me. The first time Leonard is outside since awakening we see him walking down the steps and it shows a close up view of his feet, and as he walks down we see a young child walkig up with her mother and it's clear the connection. Subtle yet so touching.
One of the greatest films I've ever scene!
too many holes
Mute and catatonic for 30 years a man who went into inner silence suddently with the use of a new drug regains use of his mental faculties and rebels.
Speaking with the intellengence of someone who never was ill and who had substantial education for a man who never was schooled beyond age 10 because of his illness leonard outdo's expectations.
But all is not as it seems...
A good honest film but u'll feel cheated at the end of this 2 hr film
More Customer Reviews (22 total)
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