According to Ebert (1990) about the movie “The Awakenings” directed by Penny Marshall, it talks about the story of a new doctor (Robin Williams) who comes to work in the hospital. He has no experience in working …show more content…
Yet what’s remarkable is how little of it seems authentic. Though rooted in fact, the movie feels like a synthetically engineered mishmash of Rain Man, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and — most prominently —Charly, the 1968 fantasy in which Cliff Robertson played a retarded man who gains and then loses a genius-level IQ. Like The Awakenings has no edge. The drama in any given scene is counted by the movie’s vigorous efforts to tug at your heartstrings.
Gleiberman (1990) also says that what saves the movie is the acting. Robert Williams plays Dr. Sayer as a nerd with a confined character, and although the character is too good for comfort, Williams does some of his most convincing screen work. For once, his confused, remote-control mind doesn’t seem inappropriate to the character he’s playing. That awareness is what makes Sayer both a nervous wreck and a great scientist. Polite, even harmless, on the outside, he’s never at rest