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Awakenings movie review and analysis in film criticism course forum for advanced ESL students to enjoy practicing English with great English movies every week.
Awakenings movie review
We do not know what we see when we look at Leonard. We think we see a human vegetable, a peculiar man who has been frozen in the same position for 30 years, who neither moves nor speaks. What goes on inside his mind? Is he thinking in there? Of course not, a neurologist says in Penny Marshall’s new film “Awakenings.” Why not? “Because the implications of that would be unthinkable.” Ah, but the expert is wrong, and inside the immobile shell of his body, Leonard is still there. Still waiting.
Source: https://www.rogerebert.com/
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Awakenings movie analysis
“Awakenings” is cause for rejoicing, a literate and compassionate film in this season of chintz and barbarism. A sweetly stirring drama in the spirit of “Rain Man,” it explores the mutual gain in a union between an emotionally handicapped man and his neurologically disabled friend. Featured here are Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, attuned as bow and fiddle in their roles of a clinical psychiatrist and the catatonic patient he awakens from a sleep of 30 years.
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com
For me, Awakenings is defined as a bitter-sweet movie. It made me emotional and inspired at the same time. The patience and compassion of Dr.Sayer with Leonard and other patients and his persistency to find them a cure was remarkable. Also, the fact that it was based on a true story makes it even more heart touching.
Awakenings is a great film based on a true story in which a compassionate neurologist is willing to go the extra mile to help the patients unconditionally in a mental institution or psychiatric hospital. He constantly thinks outside the box and practices critical thinking to come up with practical and actionable methods to treat the patients, such as checking their reflexes, applying music therapy, putting new medications to use, and making close observations on the patients.
This movie opened my mind to my healthy mind and body, which is most of the time taken for granted. I really liked the message in Dr. Sayer’s speech at the end of the film when he said, “Human spirit is more powerful than any drug”.
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