Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU This film is a true story and like with all true stories we get a fantasized version of the story itself. We are dealing here with post encephalitic patients who have become absolutely catatonic. A new drug, quite experimental and that has not been tested really on humans properly, is used in a psychiatric institution where they have a dozen or so patients in that situation. First one patient, and then the whole group. The result is spectacular. They wake up and they start having a normal life, well normal is a big word. They just try to adjust to the reality they finally see and within the limited freedom they can have within an institution out of which they cannot go without being totally supervised by professionals. The first patient who was provided with the drug, Leonard, becomes very autonomous to the point of establishing a relationship with a visiting young woman and then asking for the right to just go out on his own for a walk. The film uses the word "miracle" too much. There is no miracle with chemical stuff and drugs. There are only physiological reactions to the drugs. They can be positive. They can be negative. They can last for a long time with a regular treatment or use, or they can only last a short period of time, an awakening and nothing else and then the patients go back to the catatonic state they used to be in and they may have spent thirty years in. The film at the end is not hiding this fact, but the term "miracle" is false in this context.The film insists on the reactions of the patients, on the way they enter a phase where they want to have some kind of real living, or at least what they imagine they would enjoy. The film is totally ignorant of a simple fact. These catatonic people are catatonic for us but they still can hear, they still can see, they still can enjoy the benefits of their senses and they know the standard language that is spoken around them. The film does not concentrate on this fact we know today, we would concentrate on today: the patients have heard a lot and seen a lot, even if they are locked up in an institution. But they have received a lot of oral language spoken around them and there is no reason to believe they did not understand it since they may have lost the power to speak, but we know with autistic kids who do not speak for years, that when they start speaking they start speaking normal language because they have learned and assimilated language while in their autistic non-speaking phase.We know today that it is important to go on speaking to catatonic and comatose people because they hear and they receive that language and they react to it, even if we have no external sign about it. It is amazing at times to find out that a person who gets out of a long comatose state is able to say what he heard and had saved in his memory during that period. It is not systematic. It is not automatic. It is not perfect and extensive. But it is, even if limited. Just the same way there is a womb memory that enables a newborn to remember what it was like in the womb, there is a comatose memory that enables the comatose person when he/she comes out to remember what it was like when they were "gone," and what was said about them.I must say that in 1990 we were still far away from what we know today. The film though is interesting because of the concentration on the people around the sick people. The family for one, at least one mother, the first patient's mother, Ms. Lowe, who is grateful while the awakening lasts but becomes dubious and skeptical when the awakening comes to an end, and Leonard, her son, falls back into the horror of a semi-catatonic state. The doctors are also shown as being over-cautious, and yet they are justified to be so but we cannot get out of the picture their refusal of a free walk in the city for Leonard as being a cause of the change in the "community" because the patients all knew about the rebellious state Leonard fell into afterward that also caused a relapse in his disease. The most interesting people are the nurses and other personnel. They are supportive of the change and the new experimental drugs because they want their patients to become more normal people, people with whom they can speak and exchange some conversation. That's the positive point. The medical profession is not necessarily of the torturing brutal unempathetic type. Somewhere they are still human. And that's maybe the most important "miracle." The battle for human treatments is not lost before being fought because the professional personnel in these situations or hospital wards just hope their patients' situation can be improved. So, a good film for a hot summer night.Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

sagarnair6 One of the Best Movies! Perfect proof of the proverb Old is Gold. There wasn't a second when i turned my head away while watching the movie. THIS MOVIE TRULY MAKES YOU REALIZE NEVER TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED. 'APPRECIATE EVERY SMALL THING IN YOUR LIFE'. Not sure why is it not in IMDB Top 10 movies. Brilliant acting by Robin Williams and Robert De Niro keeps you immersed till the end. This Movie taught me that Watching yourself failing everyday is truly Heartbreaking.Thankyou Sagarnair6

TheSheykhi had a great Idea and had aptitude to be a great movie but disaster screenplay and directing waste it! The characters were not well-developed at all. it made Inner desire to know the character's past but didn't give us any information. Their illness cured very fast and they got healthy and adapt themselves with conditions even faster! it took a few days for Leonard to be healthy(which is shorter than usual also) but for other patients, just a few hours! worse that script? it's directing. I had seen movie "big" by Penny Marshal before and I liked it so much but in this case, she sucked. the film is quite scattered and full of confusion. instead of concentrating on one or two topic, it wants to include several big topic which it isn't easily achievable. I think Marshall should focus on that part of the screenplay that was stronger and leave the weak part. I didn't like De Niro's. in fact he played healthy Leonard part well, but the ill Leonard, Disaster! although Williams was fairly good. Perhaps the script did not allow them to show more than that and director did not provide the base for them. I'm sure you know that a few years later, in the movie "Good Will Hunting" by Gus Van Sant, Robin Williams played a similar character and played it Fantastic.Now, you know what's funny? The film has three Oscars nominations for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Actor for De Niro!!

majslan I just watched it for the first time. I feel so emotional, what a good movie! To be honest I hadn't even heard about this movie before.. I saw it on netflix and I thought the actors were great so I pressed play. I am amazed! Really!!!!What makes it so great is the fact that it is based on a true story.. Thats what makes us so emotional, I cried a little bit :( and the actors, wow! Incredible acting by both Deniro and Williams. I can't let go of the characters in this movie, I wonder what happened later in their lifes... I searched google but could not find any answers.You know when you watch a movie and it is so good that you almost wish that you had not seen it so you can see it for the first time again and be as amazed as the first time! Thats how I feel about this movie. I love emotional movies though. I definitely recommend this movie!