Awakenings (1990)

1990 must have been a good year to be Robert De Niro. As if being a total bad ass in Goodfellas weren't enough, he had to go and perform the hell out of his role in Awakenings, too. And this is not the De Niro we're used to seeing. Here he plays Leonard, a patient in a neurological hospital who is victim to an unknown disease (we later find out it's an extreme form of Parkinson's) that makes him unable to move, speak, or do anything except swallow the food and water given to him by the hospital staff. Until Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) gets a job at the hospital.


I don't really feel like relating the entire plot here, but suffice it to say that Leonard and a handful of other patients with similar conditions experience a sort of "awakening," thanks to the research of Dr. Sayer and a drug originally made for Parkinson's patients. That means we get to see De Niro go from being completely paralyzed to speaking and moving and thinking as if he never had a disease at all. We get to see the transition throughout the film, and it is an absolutely staggering piece of acting. It's usually very easy for an actor to garner attention and praise by playing someone with a mental handicap, but this role is so much more than that. De Niro portrays Leonard at every stage of his awakening and decline while maintaining a character with intelligent thoughts and intense emotions. And his handicap is neurological, not mental. I can't help but be reminded of the advice Kirk Lazarus gives to Tugg Speedman in Tropic Thunder, regarding how to win an Oscar: "Never go full-on retarded."

Robin Williams' performance is equally spectacular, perhaps the best of his I've ever seen. His Dr. Sayer is the film's real protagonist, as he goes from a socially awkward researcher to a doctor who figures out how to care about people. That's really what the film is about.

But the performances are only one piece of what makes Awakenings a terrific film. It would have been so so so so so easy for director Penny Marshall to turn this movie into a sappy tearjerker, and I'm sure the film would have enjoyed the same amount of commercial success if that had been the case. I am so thankful that she chose to focus on the philosophical issues brought about by the remarkable story (which I'm told is true, by the way). The plot is neither unrealistically miraculous or heartbreakingly sad. It does, however, assert that the patients in this particular case have real human thoughts and, therefore, the ability to love, worry, and express anger, joy, and sadness. And it explores what that conclusion tells us about humanity. So just as she did in Big, (the film she made two years prior) Marshall takes what could have been a mediocre piece of popular entertainment and turns it into accessible art that will truly make audiences think about something profound.

Highly recommended.