Time for another entry in the Oscar Film Journal, here at Enuffa.com!
Here's an early-90s drama that I was interested in at the time but just never got around to seeing. Awakenings, starring Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro and directed by Penny Marshall, is a medical drama based on true events, about a young, curious doctor assigned to the neurological disorder wing of a hospital in the Bronx. The year is 1969, and Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Williams) discovers that all the patients in this particular group had suffered a specific form of encephalitis that rendered them catatonic. But it turns out this catatonia can be momentarily broken by specific stimuli, for example tossing a patient a tennis ball to catch, or playing a piece of music that speaks to them. With one patient Leonard Lowe (DeNiro), Sayer is able to communicate via the letters on a Ouija board. He theorizes that the shared disorder of these patients is similar to Parkinson's, that their tremors became so severe they caused the patients to simply freeze up. A Parkinson's drug called L-DOPA is administered to Leonard, and overnight he can move and speak again, after spending three decades as a prisoner in his own body. The drug is used on the rest of the ward with similar results, but unfortunately the disease isn't such a simple one to cure.
I went into this film expecting a saccharine feelgood movie, but was pleasantly surprised to find it's much more than that. It deals with themes of kindness and the triumph of the human spirit in the worst of circumstances, but it also handles the material with clinical realism. The real-life doctor on which Sayer is based did eventually see some long-term success with a few patients, but in most cases the heartbreaking reality was that these "awakenings" were fleeting. Third-act scenes depicting Leonard's relapses become hard to watch, as DeNiro conveys the agony of constant uncontrollable bodily tics and spasms. This is a role very much against type for him, and he completely nails it, earning a well-deserved Oscar nod. Williams is right at home as the benevolent, socially awkward physician for whom caring for his patients has become everything; Sayer's idealism and genuine kindness echoes that of Professor Keating in Dead Poets Society. A very sweet relationship develops throughout the film between Sayer and his nurse Eleanor (Julie Kavner), who right away takes a shine to the good doctor, coaxing him out of his own shell of crippling shyness.
Awakenings ended up being much more than just a showcase for its two stars; it examines the idea that life is to be enjoyed and that human connections are what really matter. For these patients whose healthcare providers have given up on them, there can still be hope and a quality of life. One just has to make the effort to get through the physical barrier holding them hostage. Leonard takes a romantic interest in the daughter of one of the patients (Penelope Ann Miller), and she wonders if her father even knows she visits him. "He knows," says Leonard, speaking from experience.
I give Awakenings ***1/2 out of ****.
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