Review of Awakenings (1990) by Alex M — 28 Nov 2009

This movie is based on the true story of a Neurologist (Dr Oliver Sacks) who experiments with L-Dopa in the treatment of Encephalitis Lethargica ("Sleepy Sickness" - a post-infective condition characterised by progressive development of movement disorders and impaired speech, gait and posture, until patients are completely immobile and speechless).

It was not only fascinating to me from a medical point of view, but it also captivated me from a purely emotional and human point of view.

Robert De Niro was mind-bogglingly brilliant as Leonard, a child who had slept through his adolescence and early adulthood, and suddenly woke up a middle-aged man, it was so beautiful and humbling to see someone who had had so much taken away from him and yet still had such an optimistic and child-like view of the world and it's inhabitants.

Robin Williams was also amazing as Dr Sacks, the shy neurologist who puts so much into the care of his patients as to negatively impact his own emotional well-being.

This movie portrays 2 parallel stories, that of Leonard, which starts and ends pretty bleakly, but which skyrockets into magnificence somewhere in the middle (in the short period during which he was "awake" , he made sure he experienced more than most people do in a lifetime), and that of Dr Sacks, which starts pretty bleakly, but which, through learning from Leonard's positivity and attitude towards life and love, seems to improve by leaps and bounds.

Very very similar to one of my favourite books of all time - "Flowers for Algernon" - one would think it would cause chronic depression to be exposed to a story of someone who is given life only to have it viciously ripped from them soon afterwards, but seeing how much people can cram into a short life, just because they know how quickly they can lose it, inspires one to live as much as one can, everyday, because, as the cliche goes, it could just be one's last.