Dr.
Sayer: You told him I was a kind man. How kind is it to give life, only to take
it away? Eleanor: It's given to and taken away from all of us. Dr. Sayer:
Why does that not comfort me? Eleanor: Because you are a kind man. Because
he's your friend.
Review:Awakenings
takes place in a Bronx mental hospital and is based on actual events. Robin Williams
(Fisher King, Dead Poets
Society) plays the newly hired doctor, who like the patients who are catatonic,
is shutoff, by his own shyness and inexperience. Williams playing an introvert
is fascinating to watch because it goes against his public persona. Robert DeNiro
(Taxi Driver, Raging
Bull, The Deer Hunter, Godfather
II), is absolutely incredible as a grown man with a child's personality
which "awakens" and soon deteriorates. DeNiro, proving once again he
is one of the greatest actors alive, leaves it all out there and was rewarded
with yet another Oscar nomination. The movie is philosophical on many levels...is
it better to remain hopeless or to be given hope and then lose it again? . -Review
by Aaron Caldwell
