Image retrieved from mylastoscar.wordpress.com
(Writer's note: The first three paragraphs contain a rather long introduction that contains some personal inputs on life in general, particularly, the writer's own life. Ergo, to skip these parts and move on with the review proper, please proceed to paragraph five.)
(Disclaimer: There may be spoilers ahead.)
To those who know me, and to those who have been curious enough to read my short bio (it's the first entry in the sidebar, just below and to the right of the blog's banner title), they know I'm a med student. What they may not know is the personal anguish I suffered in pursuing that career path. Med School is a really, really tough gig, and it requires a lot of belief and perseverance to go through, more than knowledge and mastery of the contents of a truckload of textbooks.
In many ways, it feels like this is not the profession for me; it seems the profession itself does not prefer me, regardless of how much I want to take it. It's like that curious street maxim I've heard many times before: "How can you face your problem if the problem is your face?"
A lot of films have given me inspiration to push through this chosen path. Movies like "Patch Adams" and "The Doctor" give you that special feeling, that thought of being able to do a difference in the lives of many people. But they all fall short of that gnawing concept of failure. True, the films had its conflicts, but not as stark and definitive as that shown in "Awakenings".
"Awakenings" is a movie directed by Penny Marshall starring two of the highest-caliber actors of our time, Robin Williams and Robert de Niro. Robin Williams plays Dr. Sayer (based on the real-life Oliver Sacks, who wrote the book "Awakenings", which was the basis of this movie), a rather clumsy man who's not too high on confidence. He gets himself employed in this chronic hospital in The Bronx, treating mentally-disabled patients. In one check-up, he notices this particular patient to have the ability to catch her fallen eyeglasses mid-air. Soon, he discovers other patients having the very same ability to catch something that is thrown at them. At first, the hospital authorities ignored Sayer, but the evidence were soon too hard to ignore. That's when Dr. Sayer meets Leonard.
Image retrieved from The Moral Times
Dr. Sayer noticed that Leonard (Robert de Niro's character) is always looking at the doctor. Sayer finally finds the urge to contact the patient's mother to know more. Sayer finds himself needing to find an answer to Leonard's problem and comes across a new drug that may be the cure. At first he was dismissed, but the doctor's stubbornness won and was given a chance to give the drug to a single patient, provided there was consent from the family. Leonard's mother, despite her doubts, agreed.
Soon, Leonard was back from his catatonia and living life as it is before. He began reading again, doing crafts and even finding the courage to talk with this girl, whom Leonard seemed to have fallen in love with at first sight. The trustees of the hospital was shown this remarkable improvement and agreed to finance the expenses needed to give the drug to the other patients. The drug worked, and the miracle happened.
And then Leonard began having problems.
Delusions of grandeur, worsening tics and mannerisms soon took over Leonard. Dr. Sayer knew the drugs were no longer working. Even when he increased the dosage, Leonard grew worse.
In the end, all of the patients suffered the same fate, and Leonard was back in stasis.
Despite what seemed to be a failure, Dr. Sayer found light at the end of the tunnel. In his report to the hospital trustees, he said and I quote, "What we do know is that, as the chemical window closed, another awakening took place; that the human spirit is more powerful than any drug, and that is what needs to be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family. These are the things that matter. This is what we'd forgotten - the simplest things."
Image retrieved from Chasingcinema.com
The film is not a life-changer, to be sure. I've yet to discover if this film is the pivot I needed to make me press on, or if its is just a provider of hormones that fill my head with euphoria. Either way, the film had done its job, and it opened my eyes to a new light, of how it feels to touch others' lives and help them in any way possible. In retrospect, despite the strong impact my past failures have been in trying to pursue the career I've chosen (close friends and family would know), they seem to feel light in comparison with Dr. Sayer's problems, much less Leonard's.
As for Robin Williams and Robert de Niro, they may sound like an odd pairing, but it worked, rather effortlessly. De Niro's vintage method-acting and Williams' quick-witted style complemented each other quite well. Their acting chemistry has to be the work of a genius, or a magician.
They created this sort of atmosphere that I can't exactly describe. They bring this sort of, as some would say, "bro-mance" aura of close-knitted friendship that's pretty much in there with likes of House and Wilson in "House", Swyteck and Knight in the James Grippando novels, or the classic Holmes and Watson in Sir Doyle's Shelock Holmes. However, unlike the others whose friendship can be shown to have developed in a lot of episodes and/or pages of novels, Williams and de Niro only had less than two hours of film, and they made it look easy.
From their subtle movements to their stage-owning voices, these two actors are nothing less than legends in their industry. The harmony of the two created this wonderful movie that can only be described as a wake-up call - that we are all destined to fail at some point, some more drastic than others, but it is our "spirit" that pulls us through, that grit and determination to make us appreciate all "the simplest things", makes us open our eyes.
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