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Common sense media reviewers.

Robin Williams plays it serious in moving true story.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Theme of respecting the humanity of those who are

Sad, but not scary.

A few expletives.

Parents need to know that this is a moving story and may be tough on sensitive viewers.

Positive Messages

Theme of respecting the humanity of those who are different.

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (8)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Could really be a PG movie if not for one f word

Fine duo of performances bogged down with sentimentality, what's the story.

Shy neurologist Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is assigned to work with a group of catatonic patients who, ever since an epidemic of encephalitis ("sleeping sickness") decades before, have not spoken or appeared to understand anything that was going on around them. Everyone else has given up hope, but Sayer notices they have reflex reactions and believes that new medication for Parkinson's disease may help. His superiors object, but he gets permission to try it on one patient, Leonard Lowe (Robert De Niro). At first, there is no reaction, but soon Leonard "awakens." His transformation is so thrilling that Malcolm is easily able to get permission and funding to treat the other patients, and the results are amazing. But eventually, Leonard becomes hyperactive, angry, and ridden with tics. The medication's side effects begin to overwhelm him. Malcolm sees that he is losing Leonard, and the other patients know that it must soon happen to them, too.

Is It Any Good?

Directed by Penny Marshall, Awakenings is a powerful and moving story, brilliantly acted and directed. The movie is based on the book of the same name by neurologist Oliver Sacks, who was the basis for the character Malcolm Sayer. Like Malcolm, we can all use a reminder to appreciate the pleasures of being alive, including the pleasures that require us to take risks.

Teens will enjoy reading the Sacks book, and some of his others, especially The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars , with astonishing and compassionate descriptions of some of his neurology patients.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what they think the neurologist means when he says, "because the implications of that would be unthinkable?" Why would he prefer to believe that the patients are not aware of what is going on? Were you surprised by the way any of the patients reacted to being "awakened?" Which reaction was most like the way you think you might feel? Why is it hard for Malcolm to interact with other people? How does Leonard change the way Malcolm behaves? Why does the staff treat the patients differently after the awakening, even when they go back the way they were?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 17, 1990
• On DVD or streaming : September 10, 1997
• Cast : Julie Kavner , Robert De Niro , Robin Williams
• Director : Penny Marshall
• Studio : Columbia Tristar
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 121 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• Last updated : June 7, 2023

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Awakenings true story: real life doctor & drug experiments explained.

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The Best Robin Williams Movies, Ranked

10 robin williams films that prove his versatility as an actor, 10 medical movie scenes criticized by experts for their accuracy & realism.

• Awakenings is a fictionalized retelling of Dr. Oliver Sacks' groundbreaking work on catatonic patients, featuring a powerful performance by Robin Williams.
• The movie stays true to the essence of Sacks' book, depicting the devastating effects of encephalitis lethargica and the potential of L-DOPA, despite some changes for dramatic purposes.
• Robin Williams and Oliver Sacks became close friends during the making of Awakenings, with Williams citing his role as Dr. Sayer as his favorite and expressing admiration for Sacks as a teacher and writer.

The 1990 movie Awakenings is a dramatization of Dr. Oliver Sacks' 1973 memoir of the same name — and the true story behind the semi-fictional Dr. Sayer is just as fascinating. In 1990, viewers were treated to a dramatic story starring Robin Williams (who, even in a more serious role, added a touch of his particular sense of humor) and Robert De Niro. The pair play doctor and patient in a story that’s equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking. Unlike Robin Williams' other medical drama, the historically inaccurate Patch Adams , Awakenings uses its true story to enhance its own semi-fictional narrative.

Directed by Penny Marshall, Awakenings is a retelling of the groundbreaking work carried out by Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of the Awakenings book. While it certainly makes some big changes, including the key characters involved, the important aspects and powerful elements of the Awakenings true story are captured. This helped to make Awakenings a huge hit, making over $52 million ( Box Office Mojo ) and being nominated for three Oscars, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Robert De Niro), and Best Picture. Additionally, there are many fascinating facts about the true story of Awakenings and how they relate to the movie.

Robin Williams starred in a plethora of movies highlighting his talents for both drama and comedy, but there are some that stand out as his best.

The Inspiration For Awakenings Dr. Sayer Explained

Robin williams' character is based on dr. oliver sacks.

Awakenings follows neurologist Malcolm Sayer (played by Robin Williams), who, in 1969 while working at a hospital in the Bronx, began extensive research on catatonic patients who survived the 1917-1928 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Sayer learns of a new drug that helps patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease and believes it could be of use on catatonic patients.

He runs a trial on patient Leonard Lowe ( played by Robert De Niro ), who completely “awakens” and starts to show major improvements, but the experiments soon come across some obstacles that threaten the life quality of the patients who were just starting to deal with a new life in a new time. As detailed in Sacks' memoir, the drug and experiments shown in the movie are actually real, despite Awakenings being a fictional story.

Dr. Sayer is based on Dr. Oliver Sacks, a British neurologist, naturalist, historian, and writer, who authored various best-selling books recounting case studies of people with neurological disorders, including himself. Sacks suffered from prosopagnosia, also known as “face blindness,” a cognitive disorder of face perception that affects the ability to recognize familiar faces, including one’s own. This disorder was the basis for his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat , published in 1985. Over a decade earlier, he wrote a book about the Awakenings true story, recounting the life stories of the victims of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica epidemic.

Also known as sleeping sickness, this disease attacks the brain and leaves victims in a “ statue-like condition, speechless and motionless ,” similar to locked-in syndrome. Sacks described the patients as “ conscious and aware – yet not fully awake, ” and started studying and helping them at Beth Abraham Hospital in the 1960s. The Awakenings cast brought Oliver Sack's work with sleeping sickness to life, especially Williams as Dr. Sayer, and it's a Robin Williams doctor movie that avoids the saccharine qualities of Patch Adams .

Robin Williams was best known as a comic, but his abilities as an actor truly knew no bounds, as proven by these colorful roles.

Awakenings True Story: The Real Doctor Sacks And His Drug Experiments

The real experiments that inspired the awakened movie explained.

The drug Sacks began using on catatonic patients was L-DOPA, also known as levodopa, an amino acid precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (adrenaline). L-DOPA is used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, but Sacks saw its potential in helping other diseases. According to an article by AP News back in 1991, De Niro's character, Leonard Lowe, is a real person based on a real patient of Sacks, described as “ an exceptionally well-read man, freely quoting philosophers and writing insightful book reviews. ”

Leonard, as well as many other patients, initially had a positive reaction to the drug and fully awoke, but just like in the movie version of Awakenings , Leonard began to become paranoid and developed severe tics, eventually regressing to his earlier catatonic state and passing away in 1981.

Awakenings Book Vs. Awakenings Movie: What They Changed

Despite being remarkably accurate, awakenings is still a fictional tale.

There are many differences between the Awakenings book and the movie . The most notable is that Oliver Sacks doesn't appear in the movie, with the Dr. Malcolm Sayer character that is played by Robin Williams standing in for him. This was a deliberate decision to give the writers artistic license for dramatic scenes and friction that didn't occur in real life (including flirting with a female nurse, which the real Oliver Sacks never did, as he was homosexual).

The patients in Awakenings have had the more violent or sexually aggressive elements of their symptoms toned down, too. De Niro's character is perhaps the closest to their literary counterpart, but even Lowe has some moments in the Awakenings movie that don't appear in the book . Again, these are flirtatious moments that are clearly added to inject some Hollywood drama and keep audiences engaged.

The pacing of Dr. Oliver Sacks' memoir Awakenings is different in the movie, but this works for the heartfelt story that's bolstered by Williams and one of the many powerful roles De Niro transformed himself to play . Crucially, the key moment when the patients awaken took place over a few weeks in the book, and they didn't awaken all at once.

What the Awakenings movie didn't change much was the impact of the debilitating illnesses Dr. Sacks/Dr. Sayer treated . Illnesses like sleeping sickness are, after all, at the core of Awakenings' true story and the work Dr. Sacks carried out, so it makes sense that the harrowing impact of catatonic conditions is the element of Awakenings least tampered with when it was brought to the big screen.

Medical scenes in movies are great for entertainment, but they are usually criticized by experts for being unrealistic and scientifically inaccurate.

Robin Williams & Oliver Sacks Became Lifelong Friends

Playing a fictional version of dr. sacks was robin william's favorite role.

Of course, Awakenings made various changes to the stories of Sacks’ patients, but as it counted on Sacks as technical advisor , the crew made sure that it stayed true to the essence of the book and gave a true yet devastating portrayal of encephalitis lethargica and its effects. Character-actor and adlib performer extraordinaire, Robin Williams , and Oliver Sacks were close friends by the time both sadly passed away, meeting on the set of Awakenings . Williams spent a lot of time with Sacks to make sure that his character Dr. Sayer didn't stray too far from the Awakenings true story.

The late Williams even cited portraying Sacks/Dr. Sayer as his favorite role in a Reddit AMA , saying, " I think playing Oliver Sacks in Awakenings was a gift because I got to meet him, and got to explore the human brain from the inside out. Because Oliver writes about human behavior subjectively and that for me was the beginning of a fascination with human behavior. " Likewise, in a conversation with Charlie Rose, Williams talked about Sacks as one of the great teachers in his life long after the movie was over.

The fact that Dr. Sayer in Awakenings replaces the real Dr. Sacks isn't important , as countless inaccurate biopics about specific individuals do not resemble them at all. However, the closeness between Williams and Sacks, as well as the great admiration Williams clearly had for the man, made this movie feel more authentic than some of those more egregious biopics. It is easy to feel the personal connection through Williams' relationship in Awakenings, even if he isn't technically playing Oliver Sacks.

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Review/Film; From a Living Death To Life in 'Awakenings'

By Janet Maslin

• Dec. 20, 1990

A moment of genuine humor in Penny Marshall's film version of "Awakenings" finds the ward nurses at a Bronx hospital for chronic mental patients annoyed at having to stop watching a soap opera on television. They happen to be surrounded by real-life events of a sort that soap-opera writers only dream about, miraculous occurrences alive with joy and pathos, love and laughter, courage and tears: all the things that give the phrase "triumph of the human spirit" a bad name.

It need not have been so. "Awakenings," Dr. Oliver Sacks's 1973 account of the events that are seen here, is quite free of false sentiment, preferring to let the extraordinary facts of Dr. Sacks's medical detective story speak for themselves. The patients whose lives he changed in the spring of 1969 had once suffered from "sleepy sickness," the encephalitis epidemic that during the 1920's afflicted five million people worldwide. Even among those who seemingly recovered, symptoms often appeared decades later, symptoms of a paralyzing post-encephalitic Parkinsonism that led one doctor studying the original epidemic to label these patients "extinct volcanoes."

Helpless as they were, sometimes frozen into eerily expectant physical poses, these people often retained their higher faculties. "Thus these patients," Dr. Sacks wrote, "some of whom had been thrust into the remotest or strangest extremities of human possibility, experienced their states with unsparing perspicacity and retained the power to remember, to compare, to dissect and to testify."

It was Dr. Sacks's inspired understanding of this state as possibly responsive to the drug L-dopa that led to the opening of what the film calls a "chemical window." For a brief period, these patients regained their ability to move and speak freely. Their wildly unpredictable reactions to this physiological windfall, as documented scrupulously and reflectively by Dr. Sacks, are what give "Awakenings" its potency as both a mystery story and a meditation on the limits of human consciousness.

If Dr. Sacks's descriptions make impossible-sounding transformations sound real, Ms. Marshall's film very often has the opposite effect. Her "Awakenings" is a fairy tale forged uneasily out of facts, despite the facts' overwhelming strangeness and weight. "Awakenings" both sentimentalizes its story and oversimplifies it beyond recognition. At no point does the film express more than one idea at a time. And the idea expressed, more often than not, is as banal as the reality was bizarre.

The film begins promisingly with a prologue that shows off Anton Furst's somber production design, Miroslav Ondricek's somber cinematography and Randy Newman's lulling score, technical virtues that are either overshadowed by the material's subsequent giddiness or, in the case of the music, greatly overused. During this prologue, the story's foremost medical victim, a brilliant boy named Leonard, is seen falling into the first stages of an encephalitic trance. Many years later, as a patient on the ward where Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) is doing his research, the adult Leonard (Robert De Niro) emerges as the most startlingly transformed of all the doctor's human guinea pigs.

Mr. Williams, very persuasive as this stiff and timid neurologist, is at first seen bucking a stereotypically small-minded hospital official (John Heard) in order to win the opportunity to experiment with L-dopa. He does this with the support of a stereotypically kindhearted nurse (Julie Kavner). He has arrived at this point in his research through a variety of stereotypically object-related brainstorms (a game of hopscotch prompts one idea, a Ouija board another). And he tests the patients' Pompeiian demeanor by attempting what look like a series of parlor tricks.

Some of the events here, like the prompting of frozen patients to continue their card game by the moving of one card, actually happened. And they were in fact captured in earlier documentary scenes of the real patients Dr. Sacks studied. Nonetheless, they are staged in a broad, jokey, peculiarly unconvincing style. And when at long last the patients are freed from their torpor, they come to life almost simultaneously and bubble over with the ghastly whimsy common to madhouse movies from "King of Hearts" to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." They frolic; they romp; they actually go out dancing. "I think I liked them better the other way" says an orderly, and he has a point.

This raucous transformation process involves Anne Meara, Judith Malina, Richard Libertini and numerous over-the-top performers as antic patients (Alice Drummond, as a demure elderly lady, and Dexter Gordon, as a quietly elegant musician in the group, provide these scenes' only note of peace). Its centerpiece is of course Mr. De Niro's Leonard. With a saintly sweetness, he ventures out of the hospital to explore a long-lost Bronx, marveling at a changed world and sharing his perceptions with the shy Dr. Sayer, a kindred spirit. The screenplay, by Steven Zaillian, insists on many awkward and reductive parallels, but none are sillier than the idea that each of these men must awaken in his own special way.

When the real Leonard returned to life, he began by kissing flowers. (The film, which allows him a dewy crush on a young woman played by Penelope Ann Miller, captures the flower-kissing aspects of Leonard's transformation with a vengeance.) Subsequently, he grew angrier, more messianic, more power-mad and more sexually aggressive, at first attacking nurses and subsequently trying to hurt himself.

The film is at its most mundane and inadequate when it sugarcoats the more horrific aspects of this experience, notwithstanding Mr. De Niro's uncanny efforts to immerse himself in the character's remarkable pathology. His is a skillful and ambitious performance but, in this context, often a less than fully effective one.

The screenplay's possible attempts at humor rarely help. "I don't understand it!" cries Leonard's devoted mother (Ruth Nelson). "He was never any trouble before! He was good and quiet and obedient."

"Because he was catatonic, Mrs. Lowe," Dr. Sayer explains.

"Awakenings" works harder at achieving such misplaced liveliness than at winning its audience over in other ways. "Awakenings" is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some off-color language. AWAKENINGS Directed by Penny Marshall; screenplay by Steven Zaillian, based on the book by Dr. Oliver Sacks; director of photography, Miroslav Ondricek; edited by Jerry Greenberg and Battle Davis; music by Randy Newman; production designer, Anton Furst; produced by Walter F. Parkes and Lawrence Lasker; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 121 minutes. This film is rated PG-13. Leonard Lowe . . . Robert De Niro Dr. Malcolm Sayer . . . Robin Williams Eleanor Costello . . . Julie Kavner Mrs. Loew . . . Ruth Nelson Dr. Kaufman . . . John Heard Paula . . . Penelope Ann Miller Lucy . . . Alice Frummond Rose . . . Judith Malina Bert . . . Barton Heyman Frank . . . George Martin

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Awakenings: Is the 1990 Movie Inspired by a True Story?

‘Awakenings’ centers on Dr. Malcolm Sayer ( Robin Williams ), a new doctor who manages a ward of catatonic patients, and they are hopeless cases to most. The sight disturbs him, and he tries to work up a solution for their decade-long problem. As time passes, he begins to cure multiple patients, but things turn bitter. The Penny Marshall directorial is a 1990 drama movie that inspires many to have a noble pursuit in their life and cultivate empathy. If you are eager to know whether the events of this beautiful cinematic piece are based on real people, we’ve got you covered.

Awakenings: Adapted from Oliver Sacks’ True Experiences

Yes, ‘Awakenings’ is based on a  true story. It is an adaptation of the late Oliver Sacks’ eponymous non-fiction book that was adapted into a screenplay by Steven Zaillian. Oliver was a British Neurologist, and the book is more like his memoir of all his experiences while treating patients in a catatonic state for decades. As reports suggest, the patients were previously affected with encephalitis lethargica , an understudied disease that infected multiple people in the early 1900s. Another name for the illness is “sleeping sickness,” and its global widespread began in 1917.

The patients who survived had parkinsonism which afflicted their mobility and speech and made them feel dejected. Oliver noticed that consuming L-dopa was a potential cure, and he documented most of the side effects and positive changes in ‘Awakenings’ and published it in 1973. Later, he achieved more remarkable milestones in life, such as in his other book titled ‘Seeing Voices,’ he revealed how sign language is more than a mode of communication and a foundation for creating distinctive groups. Moreover, the celebrated Neurologist studied autism and brain damage and highlighted their functional skills.

Later, Oliver researched and published books on colorblindness, sensory disorders, epilepsy, hallucinations, and drug use. Before he accomplished all these feats, he had to figure out L-Dopa because its effects were turbulent. However, patients in a catatonic state for decades showed remarkable transformation, and the drug was “awakening” them. Now, they could move around, speak, and interact with the world around them. Needless to say, these transformations were no short of a miracle because everyone else had given up on the aided.

Unfortunately, the recovery did not last long, and the patients started having spasms, only to return to a catatonic stage. Even though their normal state lasted for a limited time, they learned a valuable lesson about treating these patients humanely and acknowledging their existence. Speaking of ‘Awakenings,’ the movie’s core message is hope and perseverance and how these two are the pillars of transformation, even in the face of insurmountable challenges. It is a story of human resilience, compassion’s power, and how empathy can take humans a long way.

Another theme of the Robert de Niro starrer is the pursuit of knowledge and scientific discovery to find new treatments for diseases labeled as incurable. The film is optimistic and reminds us to look beyond our limitations and embrace possibilities. Moreover, while the character of Dr. Sayer is a fictionalized version of Oliver Sacks, the patients depicted in the movie, especially Leonard, are based on actual patients treated by the Neurologist.

Overall, ‘Awakenings’ is an inspiring story of an incredible medical breakthrough. Some of the scenes in the movie are dramatized to meet the expectations of cinema. Yet, many real-life patients have gone through a positive transformation thanks to the work of Oliver Sacks and his dedication to helping the ones in need.

Read More: Best Biopic Movies

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Awakenings Reviews

If Awakenings is a cure for Hollywood’s sexism, then it is, unfortunately, a cure which was painfully limited.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2024

Though the film is directed with elegant reticence by the gifted Penny Marshall, it's diminished somewhat by Zaillian's tissue-thin adaptation which relies heavily on formulaic comedy, on cliches of character and plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 9, 2023

Awakenings suffers from false optimism and, in the end, is inconsolably sad. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jan 20, 2023

With stirring lead performances courtesy of Williams and De Niro, Awakenings is a beautiful and captivating film about making the most out of life.

Full Review | Oct 22, 2021

...another classic from the director, and a real tear jeaker as well.

Full Review | Feb 3, 2021

a curiously-underloved film... Awakenings will get a re-evaluation in the wake of Williams' passing, and that's great. It's just a tragedy it took a tragedy to precipitate it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2014

Williams gives his best "straight" performance, shorn of all his marvelous manic vaudeville. The man he plays here is not a performer, which he was even in Dead Poets Society, but simply a man.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2014

Maybe life affirming, but hardly life-changing.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jan 15, 2012

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 7, 2011

Nonfunny Robin Williams role in moving story.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 22, 2010

A beautifully moving, life-affirming true story.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 5, 2007

A potentially intriguing story, based on the actual experiences of Dr. Sacks, gets a characteristically middling, sentimental and uplifting from director Penny Marshall.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 1, 2007

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 7, 2005

Tour-de-force performances and one memorable storyline

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 10, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 29, 2005

I remember this film, which I saw 13 years ago, as a squishy article redeemed by two strong performances; I am not inclined to go back for a second opinion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 2, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 16, 2004

Moving and over-sentimental - but Marshall's best film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 5, 2004

Solid medical drama. Williams is terrific in a straight role.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 23, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2004

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Details: 1990, USA, Cert 12, 121 mins

Direction: Penny Marshall

With: Robert De Niro and Robin Williams

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1 obscenity (Ouija board used as clinical tool)

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Based on Dr. Oliver Sack’s best-selling book about his attempts to revive 10 catatonic patients in a Bronx hospital in 1969, AWAKENINGS is a true-life story about Leonard Lowe, a man lost in a sleep-like state, aware yet unable to speak or move for 30 years. Robin Williams plays Malcolm Sayer, the eccentric doctor who alone believes that Lowe, played by Robert De Niro, is sentient inside and miraculously brings him back into the world.

As a neurologist who has just finished doing five years of research on worms, Dr. Sayers has never worked with people, but applies anyway for a job at the Bronx Hospital. Since there are no other applicants, he is offered a position as Head of the Neurology Department and is given charge of the most severe cases. These are patients who have been in a trance-like catatonic state, able to eat and some even to walk, though they are stiff, with their actions sometimes suspended in mid-air like statues. Truly, they are a pathetic sight.

Dr. Sayers notes that all ten of these patients have been survivors of the encephalitis epidemic of the 1920s. However, because the symptoms of the disease took 8 to 10 years to manifest, the diagnosis had been missed.

Although the rest of the hospital staff has given up on these people, Dr. Sayers notes a response when he throws a ball at them–they catch it! Believing that they are not brain dead, but just needing to be revived, Sayer looks for a key and finds it in the experimental drug L-dopa being used to help people with Parkinson’s disease. Sayer obtains permission to try the experimental drug on Leonard Lowe, a man who has been in a catatonic state for 30 years.

It works, and Leonard comes to life, awakened from when he went to sleep at age ten. For the first time, he begins experiencing things like shaving and courtship, as he keeps his doctor, a solitary and reclusive man, up late into the night talking, discovering and sharing.

Filled with joy and boundless enthusiasm, Leonard is still confined to the hospital. Wanting out so he can walk the streets, talk to people and experience life on the outside, his request is turned down, since the drug is experimental and he is still under observation. He is a prisoner once more.

As for the other nine people, they are administered the drug and also “awake.” The nurse exclaims, “It’s a f—— miracle!” (the movie’s only obscenity). One man is bitter, though, feeling cheated of all those years; another woman, who went to sleep at 22, finds her now white hair needs tinting. Yet, most are elated to “be back.”

The drug, however, has only provided a `chemical window,’ as it soon begins to lose its potency and effectiveness. Leonard, intelligent and conscious of what is happening, begins to deteriorate.

“Has it all been worthwhile?” the doctor asks himself. AWAKENINGS leaves the answer for the viewer to determine. It is interesting to note that the deceptive, contemporary, humanistic question, “Is this life worth living?” is not pondered. The viewpoint on the patients is sympathetic and the dignity of human existence upheld. However, no mention is made of the Almighty, of a sovereign God who works above and beyond our circumstances. “I was given a perfect child at birth,” says Leonard’s mother, “I never thought to ask: ‘Why me?’ [However,] when my child became ill, I asked ‘why me?'” Nevertheless, at times, the movie seems to communicate the biblical principles: be joyous about life, and grateful for what you take for granted.

It is interesting to note how the doctor, who spends his life alone, also lives in a shell. “I’m not very good with people,” he says, yet his interest in his patients belies that. So while Sayers is helping Leonard out of his shell, Leonard is helping Sayers out of his. Thus, there are two awakenings, as Sayers comes to the realization that all that matters is friends, family and work.

Both performances by doctor and patient should net Academy Award nominations for Williams and De Niro. AWAKENINGS is a thought provoking and engrossing movie, and the fine execution of its sensitive story by director Penny Marshall will perhaps fetch her a nomination, too. It should be noted that a Ouija board is used as a clinical tool to help Leonard communicate, but not as a medium to communicate with spirits. Furthermore, AWAKENINGS is a sad movie because, although joy, hope and the invincibility of the human psyche are exalted, there is no mention of God.

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Ever since Houdini became my childhood hero, I've been delighted by scenarios in which bold ghostbusters expose the shenanigans of phony psychics. There are few frauds more cruel than fooling the bereaved that you're in contact with their loved ones. Therefore I admire the opening of "The Awakening," in which a family gathers to communicate with a son they lost in the Great War. They've assembled his photo, a lock of his hair and so on, and the poor boy seems almost in the room until the famous Florence Cathcart sweeps back the curtains and exposes trick ropes and a little boy hidden under the table. London bobbies crowd into the room, and the jig's up.

That's the only scene I much enjoyed. Florence ( Rebecca Hall ), the author of a best-seller debunking ghosts, is contacted by the shell-shocked war veteran Robert Mallory ( Dominic West ), who wants her help at the spectral English country boarding school where he teaches. A boy has recently died there, and the other students report sightings of his ghost.

The Rockford School is one of those remote piles that seem to contain way too much room. Stark against the skyline, it seems mired in the time of Dickens. That's especially true when the summer holidays leave it mostly deserted, except for the skeleton staff of characters required for haunted house stories. There's the stammering Mallory himself, tortured by the memory of dead comrades. His colleague Malcolm McNair ( Shaun Dooley ), a classic sadist who springs on every chance to whip a boy. The kindly matron Maud Hill ( Imelda Staunton ). The sinister groundsman Edward Judd ( Joseph Mawle ), who creeps about the woods with a rifle, seemingly up to no good. And a young boy named Tom (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), the only student in residence, because his parents live in far-away India.

Maud tells Florence that she takes no truck in nonsense about ghosts and has read her book many times. Malcolm enthusiastically flogs Tom for an obscure transgression. Edward skulks about ominously. Robert assists Florence as she installs ghost traps, including cameras rigged to fire automatically, powders to capture footprints and delicate instruments to measure something or other. All of this takes place within the gloomy manse, with its endless corridors and doors leading to doors leading to doors. The film's best accomplishment is its art direction, and the shadowy cinematography that keeps seeing young ghost boys who evaporate.

A proud atheist, Rebecca doesn't believe in an afterlife, but nevertheless she's soon scared out of her wits by such manifestations as a dollhouse modeled on Rockford School, through the windows of which she can glimpse dolls who seem to represent all of the characters on the premises. The screenplay by Stephen Volk and the director, Nick Murphy , never clearly explains these events, or wants to. Halfway through, my money is on the brutal teacher Malcolm McNair, who I speculate beat a child to death and is now trying to pin the murder on a ghost. With an Agatha Christie cast like this, you can never entirely rule out the kindly matron. Only the groundskeeper Judd is probably uninvolved, because he looks too guilty. Or maybe Florence Cathcart is going mad.

Whatever. "The Awakening" looks great but never develops a plot with enough clarity to engage us, and the solution to the mystery is I am afraid disappointingly standard. The real mystery is, what were the English thinking of when they built these scary stately homes and actually went to live in them? Better a cozy place in Hampstead Village, I say.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Awakening (2012)

Rated R for some violence, sexuality and nudity

107 minutes

Shaun Dooley as Malcolm

Imelda Staunton as Maud

Joseph Mawle as Edward

Dominic West as Robert

Rebecca Hall as Florence

• Stephen Volk

Directed by

• Nick Murphy

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Kinds of Kindness

A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual pro... Read all A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide. A man seeks to break free from his predetermined path, a cop questions his wife's demeanor after her return from a supposed drowning, and a woman searches for an extraordinary individual prophesied to become a renowned spiritual guide.

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• Trivia According to Hong Chau , 'Kinds of Kindness' tells three separate stories with the cast playing different characters in each.

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• When will Kinds of Kindness be released? Powered by Alexa
• June 28, 2024 (United Kingdom)
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• Merhamet Hikayeleri
• New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
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• Runtime 2 hours 44 minutes
• Black and White
• Dolby Digital

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