In the magnificent “The Awakening”, the immense and late Robin Williams embodies a young researcher who is entrusted with a group of chronically ill patients suffering from deep psychic disorders. A very beautiful film, to discover on Netflix.
The story of a young researcher who is entrusted with a group of chronically ill people suffering from profound mental disorders, the last survivors of an epidemic of encephalitis. He will gradually bring them back to life thanks to a new remedy and takes care more particularly of one of them, Leonard Lowe.
A little stuck between his brilliant and cult composition of Professor Keating in The Circle of Dead Poets in 1989, and his roles in Spielberg’s Hook as well as the -cult too- in Terry Gilliam’s Fisher King in 1991, The Awakening, directed by the late Penny Marshall, is well worth a look. And that’s good, it is in the Netflix catalog, although unfortunately a little too hidden.
Supported by an impeccable Robert de Niro and Penelope Ann Miller, the unforgettable Robin Williams in fact embodies a character who is none other than the author of the novel from which the film is based, Oliver Sacks, world famous for his works on studies. of the behavior of individuals who have suffered disorders in the lobes of their brain. Works composed of anecdotes that he analyzed, thus making his conclusions accessible to a general non-specialist public. A leader in his field, sometimes also criticized by his colleagues, Sacks died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 82.
Williams delivers in Penny Marshall’s film an interpretation full of nuances, recalling once again, as evidence, that he was a great actor, and who will also obtain a Golden Globe citation for Best Actor in a Drama in 1991 for this build. De Niro will be nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor.